Dr. Hive: anyone here a speech therapist or thinks she can be / has experience and understanding of correct enunciation?

[38carrots]

Waiting list here is 18 months, and those who used the services are quite unhappy with both therapists. Hence I've been waiting it out, especially as DS self-corrected when he was about 9. Now DD is almost 9, and I can't even figure out what sounds she is not saying correctly! I've identified a Sh/ S, but I think there's something else going on.

 

When she is focused and I ask her to produce Sh vs S, she has improved a lot in the last year. But when she's talking  or reading out loud, it is often "sock wave" and not "shock wave"...

 

I think one other issue is that she reads very fast and ends up swallowing the ends of the words. She LOVES to read out loud to me. She's been making an effort to slow down.

 

Does anyone have a moment to PM me and listen to the recording of her reading to help me identifiy if there are other issues in her speech? And whether I can work with her at home?

 

 

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Warning:  NOT an expert.  

 

I would do the following:

First, identify if she can HEAR the various common sound mix-ups.  I'm sure there's a list you can google.  If she can't hear them, she can't reliably produce them.  

Next, if she can hear them, have her (and you) practice producing them, ideally in front of a mirror.  You can also find lots of google advice on how to place lips, tongue, etc for each sound.  For probably 6 straight months, I had to tell my dd to stick her tongue out when saying the word "thirteen" in order to be able to distinguish it from her fourteen (key most placement for 14 was "bite your lower lip").  Make her really exaggerate the mouth/tongue movements for this.  

3.  Practice, practice, practice.  BUT... I'd have her do a "perfect" first paragraph- read slow, really enunciate each sound.  Then... let her read how she'd like for the rest.  You don't want to kill a love of reading!

 

Anyway, that's my BTDT advice from working with my dd (without a therapist).  She had lots of temporary hearing loss as a toddler and pre-schooler due to blocked ears, and I think that's how the problem came about.  I was lucky that she could HEAR the sounds, just not reliably reproduce them.  We worked for 5-10 minutes a day, plus some targeted practice (esp with pronouncing numbers) and she is fine now.  She was a bit younger than your dd when we attacked the problem- probably K-1st grade-ish.

 

  

[38carrots]

Warning:  NOT an expert.  

 

I would do the following:

First, identify if she can HEAR the various common sound mix-ups.  I'm sure there's a list you can google.  If she can't hear them, she can't reliably produce them.  

Next, if she can hear them, have her (and you) practice producing them, ideally in front of a mirror.  You can also find lots of google advice on how to place lips, tongue, etc for each sound.  For probably 6 straight months, I had to tell my dd to stick her tongue out when saying the word "thirteen" in order to be able to distinguish it from her fourteen (key most placement for 14 was "bite your lower lip").  Make her really exaggerate the mouth/tongue movements for this.  

3.  Practice, practice, practice.  BUT... I'd have her do a "perfect" first paragraph- read slow, really enunciate each sound.  Then... let her read how she'd like for the rest.  You don't want to kill a love of reading!

 

Anyway, that's my BTDT advice from working with my dd (without a therapist).  She had lots of temporary hearing loss as a toddler and pre-schooler due to blocked ears, and I think that's how the problem came about.  I was lucky that she could HEAR the sounds, just not reliably reproduce them.  We worked for 5-10 minutes a day, plus some targeted practice (esp with pronouncing numbers) and she is fine now.  She was a bit younger than your dd when we attacked the problem- probably K-1st grade-ish.

 

Thank you!

 

At first wasn't sure whether she could hear the difference (like a year ago) but now I'm positive that she does.

 

I'm worried about making her self conscious or affecting her love for reading. She is not very receptive to practicing enunciation. Some days she is, and some I can see that this upsets her. She had a couple of older kids (like ages 11-14) make fun of her.  Yeah, I didn't expect this from older kids in a homeschooling environment!

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Oh poor kid!  That's not nice!  

 

The thing is, she'll have to work on it if she wants it to pass sooner rather than later.  If at all possible, I'd just make it a non-negotiable.  You can try putting it into a less stressful part of the day.  Maybe add it to the tooth brushing routine or something.    

[zoobie]

Someone here posted about offering speech therapy via skype. Let me see if I can dig up the thread...

 

Edited: I can't pull it up. The thread was someone wondering whether the service would be useful and was fairly recently. I was going to look for it for my own kid! Maybe they'll see this and pop in.

Edited April 24, 2017 by zoobie

[Crimson Wife]

I'm studying Communicative Disorders to hopefully become a SLP but I still have a long ways to go before getting my certification. Hopefully one of the ladies who is a certified SLP will contact you.

 

One resource I highly recommend is The Late Eight by Ken Bleile. It's pricey but less than 1 out-of-pocket session with a SLP.

 

Eliciting Sounds by Wayne Secord was used in my Articulation Disorders class and is pretty good, but I like the Bleile book better.

[zoobie]

I'm studying Communicative Disorders to hopefully become a SLP but I still have a long ways to go before getting my certification. Hopefully one of the ladies who is a certified SLP will contact you.

 

One resource I highly recommend is The Late Eight by Ken Bleile. It's pricey but less than 1 out-of-pocket session with a SLP.

 

Eliciting Sounds by Wayne Secord was used in my Articulation Disorders class and is pretty good, but I like the Bleile book better.

 

My almost 5 year old did speech therapy last summer. She is still having articulation issues and for lack of better terms is "lazy" with enunciation. Would this book be good for us to help her? I can't seem to get her to mimic the /th/ sounds at all. 

[38carrots]

I'm studying Communicative Disorders to hopefully become a SLP but I still have a long ways to go before getting my certification. Hopefully one of the ladies who is a certified SLP will contact you.

 

One resource I highly recommend is The Late Eight by Ken Bleile. It's pricey but less than 1 out-of-pocket session with a SLP.

 

Eliciting Sounds by Wayne Secord was used in my Articulation Disorders class and is pretty good, but I like the Bleile book better.

 

Thank you for recommending the Bleile book!

[38carrots]

Someone here posted about offering speech therapy via skype. Let me see if I can dig up the thread...

 

Edited: I can't pull it up. The thread was someone wondering whether the service would be useful and was fairly recently. I was going to look for it for my own kid! Maybe they'll see this and pop in.

 

Thank you! I'd love to get a consult / evaluation, before I proceed with either doing it myself or going on that waiting list, or continuing via Skype.

[Crimson Wife]

My almost 5 year old did speech therapy last summer. She is still having articulation issues and for lack of better terms is "lazy" with enunciation. Would this book be good for us to help her? I can't seem to get her to mimic the /th/ sounds at all. 

 

The /th/ is one of the later developing sounds. For the voiced /th/ (like "those"), 50% of kids acquired it by 4 yrs 6 mos and 75% by 5 yrs 6 mos. For the voiceless /th/ (like "thick"), 50% of kids acquire it by 4 yrs 6 mos. and 75% by 6 years 0 months. So for an almost 5 y.o., I would keep an eye on them but probably not actively target them. There is a chapter on each in the Bleile book.

 

That said, she should be close to 100% intelligible by age 5, with only a few minor substitution errors (like /f/ for voiceless /th/ or /d/ for voiced /th/). So if she is having a lot of articulation issues, I would recommend full audiology testing (not just the hearing screening at the pediatrician's office) and an eval by a speech therapist. My daughter was struggling with articulation because she could not hear the differences among the various high frequency consonants. Once she got her cochlear implant, it was amazing how much her articulation improved.

[Guest]

Can I recommend this site and products to you? We have been very impressed with the quality of information, even as we are pursuing private speech therapy with the kid who needs it:

http://teachmetotalk.com