How do you know it's time to look at speech therapy... and at what age?

[AimeeM]

Our son is 4. He didn't start talking until 3. Initially, when he was about 15 months old, WE were the ones who refused referral for special services like OT, PT, ST - he was also going through some very scary medical procedures and (at that time) was terrified of everyone outside of immediate family. We decided it was best to put all non-essential "services" on the back burner, until he had went through the worst of the necessary procedures/surgeries, and had recovered (both physically and psychologically). At 15 months old, because of his underlying medical issues, he wasn't walking, talking, or crawling (he did a scoot with a leg drag). He walked at 18 months (after his primary lung/vascular procedure/surgery). Still didn't talk.

At 3 he blossomed, in terms of speech. He went from one or two words to speaking in full sentences seemingly overnight.

 

We're noticing, however, that while his vocabulary is large, his speech is nowhere near as CLEAR as other children his age. Sometimes it's downright garbled (when he's excited; otherwise he is clear). He also cannot pronounce the following sounds "th", "r", "L", and a couple other middle sounds. This is frustrating him because he's doing great academically, but sometimes people assume he is saying/reading a sound/word wrong, because of his speech, but he is "thinking it" correctly. Counting is a good example - it sounds like he's saying "fourteen" twice (because thirteen sounds like thirteen); it sounds like he's saying "va", when he reads "the".

 

I've heard different things from different people. Our neighbor is a speech pathologist and has suggested that since he got such a late start, he's actually doing quite well, given the rapid progress he's made with his speech in the past year. Others say early intervention is key. His pediatricians haven't said anything about this specifically. We could go about speech therapy a couple different ways - even as homeschoolers we are entitled to utilize school services for this, otherwise we could obtain ST privately. I'm not sure what the difference in quality is. The neighbor I spoke of works in the schools and she's amazing. I do know, however, via her, that our access as homeschoolers is limited to a certain number of sessions... but I know our insurance also limits the hours allowed (I believe), so I'm not sure there would be much of a difference.

[Wilma]

My people started ST just after they'd turned 3. Here it was articulation issues for both of them. Their language skills were a-okay, but nobody except for me could understand them. Going in for an eval would probably be your best bet! They'd know just what to listen for.

 

We used a private SLP to avoid being in the school district at all, although I think we would've been eligible for Early Intervention or something of that nature. For both of my girls, the insurance was a hassle on a regular basis, but eventually they did their part.

 

Good luck!

[sbgrace]

Well, the sounds you mention are later maturing. I'm not sure he's late for any of those at 4 (I'd have to look). My son is receiving speech for articulation ("l" mainly now, but when he started 2 years ago it was "th" "l" and "r"). I took him for assessment at 1st grade. They didn't typically, unless there were other issues or major flags, start articulation therapy until 2nd grade. I think that's different in our current town. But articulation work is harder younger. In cases of major issues affecting articulation, like apraxia of speech, early and expert in the area is very important. I don't know that it's the same for more typical articulation issues. The letters you mention fall in the typical category, and he's quite young--perhaps too young to be expected to have them developmentally. There is no harm in an evaluation, though. It might let you know if there are issues that should be addressed now.

edited to add: l,r,th aren't late at 4. http://www.superstarspeech.com/articulation-sounds-chart.html

 

But, again, I'd think an evaluation, especially given his history, might still be a good idea.

[PeterPan]

Well I can tell you my ds, newly 5, is working on the things you're describing.  He has verbal apraxia and has gotten ST (the best kind available for apraxia) since he was 2.  At newly 5, literally his targets right now are slowing down and getting the /l/ and /r/.  For /th/, he knocked out his front teeth, meaning he can't hit it without his tongue protruding.  She works on it a bit but won't go aggressively until his teeth come in, closer to 6 probably.  His motor control and articulation I think at this point are age-appropriate.  She did the VMPAC (a test of motor control that she does yearly with him to track progress), and I can't recall if she told me the results this time.

 

So anyways, I do agree with your take that he seems to have a timetable thing going on.  It *can* be the case that the delayed speech was not so much a developmental delay as a motor control problem (apraxia), and yes that's how it can come out, with someone who gets their speech but has issues with intelligibility.  That would be a possible outcome with a motor control problem.  But if it's a developmental delay, that's different.  Then what you're asking is whether he's doing what is developmentally typical for someone say 6-12 months younger.  Does that distinction make any sense?  

 

Given how he rocket shot into his speech, maybe it's a developmental delay.  Even saying garbled is sort of non-specific and open to definition.  When my ds is unintelligible, it means literally people can't understand him.  You can understand someone without necessarily hitting every sound perfectly, kwim?  If you google for the age standards for speech development, you'll find intelligibility on there.  There's a percentage intelligibility you expect for each age.  So if you take him to the grocery store and he talks with the cashier, what percentage does she understand?  That's intelligibility.  So I would google for a chart like that and just see where he's falling.  Like I said though, he's right where my newly 5 yo is who is considered age-appropriate by a SLP.  There's a big spread and if you have a very verbal child who sounds perfect out of the box, it's easy to get spoiled and not realize the range in development.  

 

That said, I'd probably get him eval'd, just for peace of mind. :)  And I'd do some reading to decide for yourself whether you think that delay was developmental or a motor control problem (apraxia).  If it's apraxia, don't screw around with the school therapist but get an expert.  PROMPT is the best technique available for it, and they can determine in a hot minute if it's apraxia or not.  A non-specialist will often screw around or miss it entirely.  (might be, let's just start some therapy, blah, blah)  I've even talked with someone who was told apraxia (not by a specialist) when it was a developmental delay.  So therapists are not all equal and they CAN screw this up.  If you google though and read about it, you can sort it out for yourself.

[musicianmom]

You most likely won't get school services for those sounds for a 4yo, but a private SLP should be able to help, especially since your son is motivated.

[fdrinca]

My daughter used to count with two thirteens too! I didn't realize any other kids did this. We've taught her to say "three-teen," which makes my mathematician husband batty. She's newly 5 and still has trouble with th/l/r sounds. We have an SLP that we see frequently for my hearing-impaired son, and she recommended waiting for language intervention until she's close to the edge of the age range for normal development. For some kids, it's really a physiological issue, and therapy doesn't do much that time wouldn't do on its own, with much less stress and cost.

[boscopup]

My middle son started speech at 4. I wish I'd started earlier.

 

We went through the school. The SLP talked to him and tested him. While he passed the tests with flying colors (had all age appropriate sounds), since parents/grandparents and strangers couldn't understand much of what he said, he qualified for therapy. We went once a week to the school for 30 minutes. He enjoyed speech therapy, since it largely involved playing with toys and talking about the toys. :D

 

He'd be finishing up therapy this year, but the school system decided to stop giving services to homeschooled students. That isn't an issue for a 4 year old though.

 

Most SLPs will tell you it's better to get kids EARLY before bad habits are ingrained. I know a lot of my son's speech issues were bad habits. He could say the /m/ sound, but he was using /n/ for several words out of habit. He had probably heard them that way when he had fluid in his ears, and thus he pronounced them wrong. We had to work with each individual incorrect word to correct the /m/ sound.

 

The sounds you mention are age appropriate to not have, IIRC. My current 4 year old (who is very intelligible and talks a LOT) often uses /y/ for /l/ in a word. We've been working on that, as he can say /l/ now. He was starting to spell things the way he says them, so he'd use a 'y' for an /l/ sound. :lol: We also sometimes work on /th/, which is also very age appropriate to not have yet. So those sounds lacking wouldn't worry me at all. The fact that you can't understand the child is what would have me going to an SLP for an eval. My middle son's intelligibility improved greatly once he started speech therapy. Within 6 months, grandparents were saying, "Wow, we can understand him now!" Was it natural development or the speech therapy? I honestly don't know, BUT... speech therapy through the school was "free", and it was fun for him, and we had great progress. And I didn't want to wait longer and have bad habits get ingrained, making it harder to correct his speech.

[creekland]

I'd definitely go for an eval as a professional can let you know if all is well - or not.

 

We took our middle son at 4 and all worked out well for him by 2nd grade.  However, if he had not started young, the experts tell us he'd likely have always had issues.  The brain "rewires" best young.   He's very, very talented/gifted (even at age 4 he tested with most things at a 7 year old skill level - but definitely not speech), but he couldn't speak - or later - read over half the letters in the alphabet.  Literally, in first grade, he'd have one of those reading books with "was" written three times, once on each line of 4 words or so, and he couldn't sound out or remember the word from the first to the second or second to the third line.

 

By the end of 2nd grade he had graduated from speech and was in the top reading group and never looked back.  He maxed the college entrance tests for English and was 1 point off with Reading.

 

I shudder to think of how "we" could have handicapped him if we'd neglected to take him in for help back when he was 4.

 

Your guy may be totally different.  A professional eval should let you know. It's worth the peace of mind.

[Farrar]

We considered it at age 5 or so but I'm glad we didn't end up going through with it.  I ended up working one sound at a time with ds instead and now I think it's fine.  There's also a DIY speech therapy program you can look at.  I forget the name, but I've seen it suggested here and a friend used it.

 

However, we weren't coming at it with any real other issues.  Ds just had some poor pronunciation that needed to be worked on.  He needed to work on some sounds.  If I had your ds and was coming from late speech like that, I think I would at least go for an evaluation and see what they say.

[happypamama]

We took one child in at seven, because some of the later sounds just hadn't come in the way they should have. The SLP was great and really helped him get those sounds solid. Because we liked her so much, we took another child in at four, and she worked with him for a while too. Both have graduated now, but there is a chance that the younger child may need to go back in a couple of years. The SLP explained that certain sounds really don't come in fully until about age seven. In our older child's case, he needed help to train his tongue to make the sounds correctly, but in our younger child's case, he needed help to train his brain -- he could make all of the sounds but would put them in the wrong places, like saying "tar" for "car." He could make the hard "c" perfectly fine but needed some reminders on how to put it in the right place. At any rate, I'm really glad I took them in, and I think an evaluation is good if you're concerned.

[AimeeM]

I'm sorry - you're right - I need to clarify "garbled", lol. By garbled I mean that when he gets excited, he talks so fast that it literally sounds like gibberish... nothing understandable, kwim? Otherwise, he's perfectly understandable to most people (unless he's using some of his made up phrases, like "fry-fry chicken" for McDonalds or "Super B" for juice (we buy the Super V juice, lol), "weepop" for lollipop. He carries on fabulous conversations with cashiers at the grocery store and at Starbucks, lol.

Well I can tell you my ds, newly 5, is working on the things you're describing.  He has verbal apraxia and has gotten ST (the best kind available for apraxia) since he was 2.  At newly 5, literally his targets right now are slowing down and getting the /l/ and /r/.  For /th/, he knocked out his front teeth, meaning he can't hit it without his tongue protruding.  She works on it a bit but won't go aggressively until his teeth come in, closer to 6 probably.  His motor control and articulation I think at this point are age-appropriate.  She did the VMPAC (a test of motor control that she does yearly with him to track progress), and I can't recall if she told me the results this time.

 

So anyways, I do agree with your take that he seems to have a timetable thing going on.  It *can* be the case that the delayed speech was not so much a developmental delay as a motor control problem (apraxia), and yes that's how it can come out, with someone who gets their speech but has issues with intelligibility.  That would be a possible outcome with a motor control problem.  But if it's a developmental delay, that's different.  Then what you're asking is whether he's doing what is developmentally typical for someone say 6-12 months younger.  Does that distinction make any sense?  

 

Given how he rocket shot into his speech, maybe it's a developmental delay.  Even saying garbled is sort of non-specific and open to definition.  When my ds is unintelligible, it means literally people can't understand him.  You can understand someone without necessarily hitting every sound perfectly, kwim?  If you google for the age standards for speech development, you'll find intelligibility on there.  There's a percentage intelligibility you expect for each age.  So if you take him to the grocery store and he talks with the cashier, what percentage does she understand?  That's intelligibility.  So I would google for a chart like that and just see where he's falling.  Like I said though, he's right where my newly 5 yo is who is considered age-appropriate by a SLP.  There's a big spread and if you have a very verbal child who sounds perfect out of the box, it's easy to get spoiled and not realize the range in development.  

 

That said, I'd probably get him eval'd, just for peace of mind. :)  And I'd do some reading to decide for yourself whether you think that delay was developmental or a motor control problem (apraxia).  If it's apraxia, don't screw around with the school therapist but get an expert.  PROMPT is the best technique available for it, and they can determine in a hot minute if it's apraxia or not.  A non-specialist will often screw around or miss it entirely.  (might be, let's just start some therapy, blah, blah)  I've even talked with someone who was told apraxia (not by a specialist) when it was a developmental delay.  So therapists are not all equal and they CAN screw this up.  If you google though and read about it, you can sort it out for yourself.

 

[katilac]

I would request an eval from the school system now - it can take months to get that, and then more time to set up services. If he doesn't qualify, no harm done, you've only lost an afternoon.

 

My oldest had ST through the schools when she was 4 1/2 & young 5. She had a mild articulation issue, no physical basis, and spoke way too fast. They were confident she would indeed grow out of both, but offered services for two reasons: they thought the speech issues might hold back her reading skills, and she was frustrated that people did not understand her. I felt really lucky that they offered services, b/c a lot of times they will not for milder issues or ones they will grow out of.

 

She enjoyed speech therapy, and made QUICK progress. It was definitely worth the time and effort. It did wonders for her confidence.

 

I don't see any reason to NOT get the eval done. If services are offered, I don't see any reason to NOT take them. Sure, he might be doing very well, and might do fine in the long run without it, but therapy can speed up the process and he might end up needing services at some point no matter what. So why not do it now if you can? Younger kids tend to enjoy it more, and definitely have more room in the schedule.

[PeterPan]

My daughter used to count with two thirteens too! I didn't realize any other kids did this. We've taught her to say "three-teen," which makes my mathematician husband batty. She's newly 5 and still has trouble with th/l/r sounds. We have an SLP that we see frequently for my hearing-impaired son, and she recommended waiting for language intervention until she's close to the edge of the age range for normal development. For some kids, it's really a physiological issue, and therapy doesn't do much that time wouldn't do on its own, with much less stress and cost.

Have you thought about having her say "one ten, three"?  That's what RS does.  That way it continues right in with two-ten three, three-ten three, etc.  Helps them see the place value and might not offend your mathy dh so much.   :D

 

And yes, what you're saying is what I suspected, that she's bumping the age of developmentally typical.  Our kids get exposed to so much language with audiobooks and stuff that this really can be an issue.  Our SLP was just commenting on it again, how his vocabulary and the language he's attempting to use really pushes what is developmentally normal.  She can't just sit there and do therapy, do therapy, for things that aren't physically meant to come at that age.  So yes he has a motor control speech problem, but there's a fine line where she backs off.  She doesn't expect his th/l/r to be perfect at this age.  She said right now her goal is that he hits them 60% of the time.  If he's hitting that, then we're ok.  There's also something called lingual dissociation (I speak as a fool), where the tongue knows where it is in the mouth and can move around.  You can do therapy on it, but it's also developmental.  So for instance this summer, at 4 1/2, he was wanting to say "excess" and that requires that lingual thing.  She did it with him, but it's not NORMAL.  It's because he listens to audiobooks and gets adult speech and History Channel, lol.  She just wasn't willing to work on it a lot, even though he wanted to say it, because it's not developmentally timely and will come if we just back off and wait for the right time.  Some things really are a matter of time, and it's hard to tell if we're comparing them to someone else who just spurted all the way there.  We lose our sense of what is typical and within the realm of normal.

[PeterPan]

I would request an eval from the school system now - it can take months to get that, and then more time to set up services. If he doesn't qualify, no harm done, you've only lost an afternoon.

 

My oldest had ST through the schools when she was 4 1/2 & young 5. She had a mild articulation issue, no physical basis, and spoke way too fast. They were confident she would indeed grow out of both, but offered services for two reasons: they thought the speech issues might hold back her reading skills, and she was frustrated that people did not understand her. I felt really lucky that they offered services, b/c a lot of times they will not for milder issues or ones they will grow out of.

 

She enjoyed speech therapy, and made QUICK progress. It was definitely worth the time and effort. It did wonders for her confidence.

 

I don't see any reason to NOT get the eval done. If services are offered, I don't see any reason to NOT take them. Sure, he might be doing very well, and might do fine in the long run without it, but therapy can speed up the process and he might end up needing services at some point no matter what. So why not do it now if you can? Younger kids tend to enjoy it more, and definitely have more room in the schedule.

I'm just curious, did she end up having reading problems?  Sometimes that talking really fast is masking poor motor control.  (They can't slow it down with control, so they speed up.)  No matter what, that's really great that she got the therapy.  I hadn't thought about the lag waiting for the school eval.  Even with a private SLP, well it varies.  It can take 1-2 months to get into a high demand SLP, or it can be same-day with somebody around the corner.  These SLPs will talk with you on the phone too, so they can hear your spiel and tell you straight up if you ought to be coming in or not.  If you're going private, then that's free info for you just to start calling and actually ask them what they think.  Call several and compare takes.  Sometimes they'll ask questions and catch a red flag you missed...

[katilac]

I'm just curious, did she end up having reading problems?  Sometimes that talking really fast is masking poor motor control.  (They can't slow it down with control, so they speed up.)  No matter what, that's really great that she got the therapy.  I hadn't thought about the lag waiting for the school eval.  Even with a private SLP, well it varies.  It can take 1-2 months to get into a high demand SLP, or it can be same-day with somebody around the corner.  These SLPs will talk with you on the phone too, so they can hear your spiel and tell you straight up if you ought to be coming in or not.  If you're going private, then that's free info for you just to start calling and actually ask them what they think.  Call several and compare takes.  Sometimes they'll ask questions and catch a red flag you missed...

No, no reading problems - she was actually already reading, which was one of their reasons for saying that the speech issues might hold her back academically. The therapist said that, basically, she had a whole lot to say and not a lot of patience, lol.

 

She had to learn that her speech could not be as quick as her thoughts - which I *do* think showed up in her spelling for a long time. She could spell almost any individual word fine, but when she was writing a story or such, her brain skipped ahead of her fingers. Have you ever seen that meme where the letters are all garbled but many people can still read it? That's exactly how she wrote for a long time! She would also write entire sentences backwards; it's actually hard to believe she never had a reading issue, lol.

 

Below is a good example of how she spelled when writing, I could generally read it with no problem. She would sometimes mangle the word order, which made it even more interesting. This is from a study on the improtance of letter order, I believe.

 

I cnduo't bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghhuot slelinpg was ipmorantt! See if yuor fdreins can raed tihs too.

[PeterPan]

Katilac, that's fascinating, and I'm glad you took the time to explain it!  It's the kind of thing I'll watch for with ds, because he does have that difference between what he thinks and what comes out.  That's fascinating how it was affecting her spelling, but that must have been unbelievably frustrating to try to sort through!  Is she to the other side and doing ok?  

 

Thanks for sharing!  :)

[katilac]

Katilac, that's fascinating, and I'm glad you took the time to explain it!  It's the kind of thing I'll watch for with ds, because he does have that difference between what he thinks and what comes out.  That's fascinating how it was affecting her spelling, but that must have been unbelievably frustrating to try to sort through!  Is she to the other side and doing ok?  

 

Thanks for sharing!   :)

yes, okay now and actually a good speller, lol. we were lucky, I think, b/c I could generally read her stuff with no problem, so it wasn't as frustrating as it could have been.

 

iirc, it improved a lot right before middle school. now she's in 10th, and all of her long stuff is typed. she actually types like a maniac, about 80 words per minute (not old-style 'touch' typing but it gets the job done). the only time I think she writes long and quickly now is for creative writing (she writes then types for that), I'll have to ask her if she still does that then.

[Tracy]

The general rule-of-thumb is that if you, the parent, can understand less than about 80%, and strangers can understand less than about 60%, then you should have him evaluated and consider therapy.  These are only very general guidelines, though.  You are right to consider other medical conditions and the speed with which he is catching up.  But I would want to nail down why he is difficult to understand.  Is it because he has an advanced vocabulary, and he has difficulty articulating the more advanced words?  In that case, I might not pursue therapy.  Or in his rush to catch up, has he skipped over specific developmental speech stages?  In that case, I would want to try to close those gaps.  Or is there a particular bad habits of speech that he has picked up?  Again, if this is the case, I would be inclined to pursue therapy.  

 

In my ds's case (he was 2yo), he had actually skipped certain developmental speech stages, which caused him to develop specific abnormal speech patterns.  The therapist walked him through these stages, and I saw substantial progress about every 2 weeks.  

[boscopup]

I would request an eval from the school system now - it can take months to get that, and then more time to set up services. If he doesn't qualify, no harm done, you've only lost an afternoon.

 

This probably depends on the area. My school district (which is small town with some rural parts to it) got us in pretty quick. I think it was like a week later that they had us in for testing, and services started pretty quickly as well. Perhaps larger districts might be more swamped?

 

But yes, it's only the loss of an afternoon if you choose not to pursue services. You can get the evaluation and then turn down services. You're not locked into anything.

 

[sbgrace]

I'm sorry - you're right - I need to clarify "garbled", lol. By garbled I mean that when he gets excited, he talks so fast that it literally sounds like gibberish... nothing understandable, kwim? Otherwise, he's perfectly understandable to most people (unless he's using some of his made up phrases, like "fry-fry chicken" for McDonalds or "Super B" for juice (we buy the Super V juice, lol), "weepop" for lollipop. He carries on fabulous conversations with cashiers at the grocery store and at Starbucks, lol.

 

Slowing down his speech was a major thing both of the speech therapists who worked with my son initially targeted. Rapid speech can be an issue that you'll need to address. It might also be that this gets better as he ages. I'd say it's quite good he's pretty understandable when he's not excited. My son was rapid all the time.

[redsquirrel]

I had my son evaluated when he was 15 months and not talking. Soon after that he started speech therapy, OT and PT. For a long time he tried to speak, but no one but me could understand him.

 

He will be 9 in January and I think he is going to be stopping speech therapy next month.

 

If your son is 4, then your school district might evaluate and provide therapy. It depends on your state. I live in NY and all his speech therapy, post early intervention, has been provided by the school and it has been plentiful, and the therapists have been wonderful. I have had no trouble with the school at all.

 

If you find yourself having to translate for him most of the time, then an eval might be a good idea.

 

Last weekend, my son went to a slumber party and came home exhausted. It was fascinating because I feel like we got a glimpse into what his speech would be like without therapy. He was pretty much unintelligible. He was replacing 'l' for 'th' (so saying 'yis' for 'this') and 'w' for his 'r' and he even lisped, which he has NEVER done. He was even having a difficult time understanding himself. He was so frustrated. After a good night's sleep he was back to himself. His speech isn't perfect, but it is within the acceptable range and I can understand why they are going to stop therapy. I am so, so glad we started intervention when we did.

[PeterPan]

I'm sorry - you're right - I need to clarify "garbled", lol. By garbled I mean that when he gets excited, he talks so fast that it literally sounds like gibberish... nothing understandable, kwim? Otherwise, he's perfectly understandable to most people (unless he's using some of his made up phrases, like "fry-fry chicken" for McDonalds or "Super B" for juice (we buy the Super V juice, lol), "weepop" for lollipop. He carries on fabulous conversations with cashiers at the grocery store and at Starbucks, lol.

I'm sorry, I missed this!  Sometimes the notifications thing on the board is screwy, and I totally missed your post.  Yes, you are going to need to slow him down, clap syllables, that kind of thing.  Have some time each day where you sit down and intentionally work with him on slow, careful speech.  All our ST work is with games, board games, playdough, that sort of thing.  Any effort you make there, say just 10-15 minutes a day, will be fabulously worthwhile.  And when you hear him going to fast, say deep breath and speak more slowly, use your words, or whatever cues you have.  It's ok to pause him and have him slow down.

[RootAnn]

This probably depends on the area. My school district (which is small town with some rural parts to it) got us in pretty quick. I think it was like a week later that they had us in for testing, and services started pretty quickly as well. Perhaps larger districts might be more swamped?

 

 

I live in a small town & it took two months to get in for testing & another month or so to get our results/have a meeting on them. So, not crazy long - but not quick, either. 

[AimeeM]

I talked to my neighbor (speech/language path) a bit more. She nodded in agreement that the school could take forever to give us services as homeschoolers. She was able to recommend a private practice that does home therapy... and they do feeding therapy too if we want it! <---- this is the same 4.5 year old who weighs in at 28 lbs and eats, maybe, 6 types of food.

She's contacting one therapist in particular that she knows very well for us, to ask if she's available.

Blessedly, our new insurance doesn't require a referral (because his new ped hasn't mentioned anything about his speech). My neighbor said that this particular practice works well with children who have medical issues, and will be able to evaluate if he's actually on target given his past medical problems and where/when he started from, or if he needs intervention. Awesome Neighbor also asked me a couple questions and was able to tell me what types of services I should push for, based on his problems (she said phonology and articulation? I'm sure I spelled something wrong there).

[creekland]

Sounds like a great plan, Aimee!

[daijobu]

I'm not a speech expert, but I wish we had had my daughter undergo an orthodontic exam before beginning ST.  It would have saved us a lot of time, effort, and expense knowing that her speech issues were related to the anatomy of her mouth.  

[Brenda in FL]

How do you know it's time?  For me it was when another three/four year old said that my child was talking babytalk!  He was evaluated just before turning two but didn't meet the criteria for services through the state at that time.  Since he started late, I was willing to give him time for his speech to develop, but when his playmate made the above comment - I knew it was time.  And he was becoming frustrated because even I couldn't understand what he was saying at times. It was time.

 

So at 3 years old I started the process for the second evaluation (late in the spring) and he qualified for speech therapy the next fall when he was 4.  It was a great experience for us - very beneficial. 

[PeterPan]

So Aimee, how did that go?  did you get the evals?  :)

[AimeeM]

So Aimee, how did that go?  did you get the evals?   :)

 

No :(

Everything's been postponed while we have another bout of illness running through the house.

[boscopup]

Blessedly, our new insurance doesn't require a referral (because his new ped hasn't mentioned anything about his speech).

 

You know, I had multiple peds say, "If his speech isn't better by age 5, I'd recommend therapy." EVERY SLP I've ever talked to has said that they prefer to get kids earlier rather than later. So I completely ignore peds on this one (though the GP I have now probably would have referred us for speech at a much younger age - she doesn't follow this mindset of "let the school handle it in K").

 

Glad you found someone! I hope your sickness will all leave the house soon, so you can get that eval! I know things are a LOT easier now that we can understand my son.

 

[AimeeM]

You know, I had multiple peds say, "If his speech isn't better by age 5, I'd recommend therapy." EVERY SLP I've ever talked to has said that they prefer to get kids earlier rather than later. So I completely ignore peds on this one (though the GP I have now probably would have referred us for speech at a much younger age - she doesn't follow this mindset of "let the school handle it in K").

 

Glad you found someone! I hope your sickness will all leave the house soon, so you can get that eval! I know things are a LOT easier now that we can understand my son.

 

 

That's exactly what my neighbor said - better to catch them before bad habits occur (or something to that extent); she said that if we catch it early, he could be done in a matter of months - if you catch it too late, it could take much, much longer.

[PeterPan]

Hope you get to feeling better soon!