My son is 3.5. He has a fine vocabulary and grammar, but he is really hard to understand. Today we had him evaluated by a professional, and she recommended he enter regular speech therapy.
It’s good in a way, because of her diagnosis, we are eligable for free local speech therapy.
But the whole thing is scary. I don’t like the idea that something is wrong with my little guy.
Anyone else been through this?
Due to premature birth, my daughter has had vision and physical therapy since she came home from the hospital.
The therapy was organized but the local Regional Center, and due to my financial situation was free of charge. They were wonderful and supportive, and did regular follow-ups with the therapists, with my ex-husband, and myself. The therapists were wonderful young women who came to my home and did therapy for an hour, once a week each.
When she turned three they had one last evaluation, and I was told that she was exactly where she should be developmentally, and that the therapy was no longer needed. I am very greatfull for the help that we received for her, and she is a wonderful, smart little angel.
Hang in, its gonna be fine. 
Hi! I went into speech therapy when I was pre-school age, also. I had been diagnosed with a hearing impairment, which caused a speech problem.
Speech lessons were great for me. As an adult, I am told I speak well, and no one is the wiser about my speech-impaired past. 
Don’t worry that something is ‘wrong,’ because the therapy will most likely fix it or at least go a long way towards that.
Just be supportive of your son’s work in his lessons. I went through a period of being very very frustrated with them and refusing to do my ‘homework’ (practicing certain sounds at home) because I couldn’t figure out why people couldn’t make sense of what I was saying since I made sense to me.
Do it, otherwise he’ll end up like my cousin (who is 14 or 15 now) and still sound like a three year old. No one ever got her help because they couldn’t hear it–they heard her all the time. However, my mom and I, who are not used to hearing her, can barely understand her sometimes.
My seven year old son just finished speech therapy–I guess you could say he graduated. He was put into classes in kindergarten and went over the summer and through first grade. It was difficult for him at first because it took work to make certain sounds and he would get frustrated. But I’d make up silly words–or slightly naughty words–to make him giggle and then the work didn’t seem so bad.
Don’t worry, autz, I’m sure your little one will do just fine–probably even better than my son because they’re going to be working with him at an even earlier age.
My daughter had speech therapy when she was young; it made all the difference in the world.
Don’t worry, none of us are perfect. Be thankful your child has something that can be found and worked on so young!
He wasn’t premature, doesn’t have a hearing problem, and has no physical reason for this. It’s frustrating!
My (now 6 year old) son also had a speech delay but it resolved itself by the time he was 5.
My 18 month old daughter knows 2 or 3 words. She should have 30-50 at this age.
And the son mentioned in the OP is almost totally unintelligable to strangers.
Neither my husband nor I had any of these issues as children, why do all my kids have so much trouble learning to talk???
This is not criticsm. It’s asking for info, OK?
Do you talk with your kids, or TO your kids? How often do you read to them? Have you worked with them on language skills?
I know it’s hard to have the time to do the basics with three littles, much less be able to do the extras, but do not look at it as your fault, or as anybody’s fault.
Also, if the oldest has a problem, the next one may unconsciously mimic that problem. And sometimes stuff just happens.
The therapy won’t bother the kid if you don’t let it bother you. Doing it now instead of later is a very good idea.
Well, if other people have a difficult time understanding him, then something * is * wrong with him. Don’t worry about it too much, just take him to therapy and get the problem fixed.
You are not alone in this. My 3 1/2 year old son has cerebral palsy and has a very tough time speaking. His vocabulary consists of about 10-15 words at the present time. He started receiving speech therapy (along with PT and OT) when he was a baby. Therapy and Early Intervention was the best thing to ever happen to him. Although he is unable to talk, he has learned to communicate via pictures and sign language and is making a lot of progress. Speech therapy has made a world of difference for us and gave us a lot of different options to consider with him.
It’s frustrating to watch your child struggle to speak and be able to see his own frustration on his face when the words don’t come out right. That’s what speech therapy is for–to give him that extra little (or in my son’s case–big) push in the right direction. It will also instill confidence in him too, as he learns to communicate better.
Go for it. The sooner the better. I guarantee you you’ll be glad you did in the long run.
My 3.5 year old son is partially deaf and was in speech therapy for a while but he too has “graduated” out. I think it helped him, and it helped us. Our former next door neighbor had a son who was a little older, with no hearing problem, and he was in therapy as well. So it really isn’t that unusual, and I doubt there is any reason to be scared.
I am hearing impaired and lost about 80% of my hearing so I use hearing aids and had to go into speech therapy. Without speech therapy, there is no way I could speak as well as I can right now and no one knows that I’m hearing impaired unless I tell them or they are really observance. I never regretted taking them and they really gave me a chance in life.
I was in speech therapy from about age 4 to 8. There was no physical cause for my impediment, it simply was.
I started with a private therapist, who I don’t remember that well, but do remember liking. Then when I went into first grade, I simply went to the school’s speech therapist. Didn’t like this at all: it was more fodder for teasing, and she was the epitome of the overworked and underpaid public school employee.
In third grade, I ‘graduated’, becuase the school cut the speech therapy program. As my speech had greatly improved at that point, my parents decided not to bring me back to the private therapist. Bad idea, in my opinion, as I still have a noticable impairment, and it played hell on my self-esteem in middle school.
Anyway, good luck with it! I remember it being both frustrating and rewarding: be sure to do your best to encourage all the practice that’s possible!
I’ve got a WAG to offer you, autz. In addition to the younger sibs picking up on the patterns of the elder, could part of the reason why be simply that each family is different? We all have little things we pronounce or emphasize differently, of course, but I’m guessing that some families do this more than others. For instance, two of my friends have kids that have needed early intervention speech therapy (without hearing loss or premature births, etc) and they are both stay at home moms. All of the children in question were binkie (pacifier) babies that had trouble letting those go, I think learning to speak around the suckies had to have had an impact. Kids who regularly go outside the home at a young age might have to work a bit harder to make themselves understood?
My son started speech therapy last year in 5th grade. His diction and vocabulary usage are normal to above average, in fact he spoke early and well as a toddler, but as an Asperger syndrome child he has some unfortunate communication tendacies. For him, the therapy concentrates on normal eye contact, lengths of pauses, empathetic speaking, how not to peseverate, etc. It’s hard to tell whether it’s ‘working’ or not, our 1 on 1 conversations feel the same, but he does seem to be communicating easier with others, so yay.
Take heart in the encouragement offered here by those who’ve been there already. It seems like there’s more and more diagnostic stuff available at younger and younger ages, and I think that’s great. I remember a few kids who ‘talked different’ when I was young, and they usually were shy and terrified of public speaking. Most of the classmates I recall eventually grew out of it, but how wonderful that today’s kids have a shot at avoiding the awkwardness altogether.
I went through speech therapy when I was a child (first grade). I was not premature, I didn’t have any hearing impairments and there wasn’t any physical reason for my speech impediment. I simply could not pronounce the letter ‘s’ correctly. I have three older siblings and none of them had a speech impediment, neither did my parents when they were children.
My mother read to me daily. By the time I was three years old she had taught me to read simple books and encouraged me to read to her. (I believe this started my life-long addiction to books.)
My school offered free speech therapy for the students. I don’t ever remember feeling frightened or like an outcast because I had to go to therapy. I do remember feeling so grown-up because I got to leave class and go to another classroom while all of my class mates had to stay in the same room all day, save for gym class and recess.
I loved speech therapy. There were three other children in therapy at the same time for the same speech impediment. Within a few months my impediment was corrected but I remained in therapy for the rest of the school year at the request of the therapist. She felt having me there to help with the other children would be good not only for me but for the others as well.
For me it was a wonderful experience (one of the few things I remember from childhood).
My son at the age of three didn’t talk at all. He started to say a few words when he was around one but then just stopped. He has a brother who is five years older and talked non-stop until he was around eleven. That combined with us getting in the habit of knowing what he wanted without him saying anything contributed to his not talking.
He started speech classes at three and finished them in third grade. By third grade he had better annunciation then most of his classmates. I was worried at first but it seemed that everyone I talked to had, or knew of a little boy that didn’t start talking until late. In almost all the cases the boy was a second child.
My older daughter went into speech therapy for her lisp in third grade. The impediment wasn’t terrible, and we’d been waiting for her to “grow out of it,” but she was starting to have a hard time making herself understood and she sounded somewhat babyish compared to her peers. She did one year of therapy with the school therapist (who was far better than the one you had sounds, NinjaChick) and was sounding perfectly normal and age-appropriate by fifth grade.
My younger daughter has a weird speech pattern (she hesitates and adds an “uh” sound before a lot of words) and I’ve asked her fifth-grade teacher to think about whether she should be evaluated before she goes to middle school.
Both of my children are considered “gifted” (I have the paperwork and everything), and neither one of them ever had any problem understanding language. There’s just something about producing the sounds that they’ve both had problems with. If I were you, I’d be thankful that you caught this early, and just take the therapy in stride. There’s nothing any more wrong with your children than there is with children who end up with braces or who need physical therapy for any other kind of problem. Different children learn differently, and they need help with different areas. Don’t worry, they’re still perfect in all the ways that matter.
I went to speech therapy in either kindergarten or first grade. I know I couldn’t say my “r’s” and both my first and last name start with an “r”. I can’t remember what other speech problems I may have had.
I wasn’t premature and don’t have a hearing problem.
Now, however, I’m having trouble remembering words. It’s always something.
Sounds like you are a good mother. I know it’s frustrating not to have the power to make everything okay for your kids. I’m glad the problem is simple enough to be resolved. The scary feeling will pass.
Another parent with a child that started out needing a bit of speech therapy (for stuttering). It was just a short time and they taught him to breath and explained that his brain was faster than his mouth, which boosted his self esteem.
Accept the help, be calm and supportive and she’ll be fine.
I had no physical or developmental problems, but I’m told that no one knew what the hell I was saying until I was about 3 years old.
I had a lisp and went to speech class starting in 1st grade, I think. Y’know, now that I think of it, I have no idea how long I was in that speech class. I just remember I was the first of my group to ‘graduate’ from it. I feel like I finished it in 3rd grade, but I don’t remember being in it for 2 years. I’ll have to ask mom.