Speech therapists are the greatest!
Our younger son dealt with this. I had his hearing checked when he was about 3 or 4, but it wasn’t that. We were clueless and tried to teach him words that he was trying to repeat but it turned out he had (so many years ago I can’t remember the exact wordage) “noun transference?” Like, one winter he kept asking for his boats. I was pulling out tub-toys etc. and he got more and more frustrated. He was actually asking for his boots.
When he started school, turned out they had a speech therapist (free—public school) who worked with him for 3 years. He loved the time spent with her because he really wanted to communicate well (he wasn’t unintelligable but talking with him was like a treasure hunt…does he mean this? does he mean that?) He was also put in remedial classes for some subjects and offered audio instruction (recorded lessons with the headphones etc.) Take advantage of all of it.
They actually do “grow out of” some of it, with practice. He now reads and speaks as well as anybody else.
I used to think, though, that if we’d been living in Jersy his saying “boid” instead of “bird” wouldn’t have even been noticed. lol
We took our daughter to speech therapy at about that age. Best thing ever. She had a problem with tongue positioning making her k’s and g’s sound like t’s and d’s, respectively. Even we had trouble figuring out what she was trying to say sometimes. I think she ended up going to like two or three months and the difference was night and day.
As far as cost goes, I think it was on the order of $100 per session and she went once a week. The sessions were covered by insurance though, so we paid a $20 copay per session. Definitely check into going through the schools though.
Depending on your state, and the severity of your daughter’s speech problem, you may be able to get her enrolled in an early childhood program to treat the problem before she hits kindergarten. It would be free and have the bus pick her up, etc…
My mother used to teach that sort of thing- probably 5 years as speech therapist before I was born, then 10 years as a early childhood special ed teacher, and another 15 as a head-start teacher. She took it all very seriously- it’s not some sort of woo like some people may think. There are definite exercises and curricula for speech therapy these days; it’s not quite like “The King’s Speech” anymore.
With speech therapy the sooner you start the cheaper and shorter the experience will be. If you suspect that you need intervention it’s a good idea to get that done as soon as possible.
Talk to you child’s pediatrician. We weren’t sure about Fang’s speech at that age, we understood him fine. His pediatrician said that he did, in fact, need help. We saw improvement right away.
It was expensive until he got to an age where the public school system took over for the private providers.
Get an opinion from someone besides daycare workers. I’m not disrespecting them, but they aren’t necessarily qualified to arrive at an opinion. You don’t need to take the kid to a speech therapist if he isn’t developing speech as quickly as you like, which is what the daycare may be responding to.
OTOH, what would be the harm?
If your child is 5, I think he is entitled to free speech therapy. (This is what I know from teaching special ed–it seems to me that the age limit has dropped even further, so your younger one may be eligible too.) Call your local school system (or a local special education services program would be even better) and tell them you are referring your child for a speech evaluation. They can set something up for you.
If you aren’t sure, check with your pediatrician. But the school system is responsible for services and there shouldn’t be any cost to you.
The OP is in the Netherlands, so the rules may be different there (I’m not sure where you are from).
In the US, a child can receive services through public schools’ special ed departments as early as age 2, at least around here (DC suburbs). I don’t know if that’s federally-mandated. They can receive Early Intervention services from birth through age 3; that is federally-mandated.
Take him to a speech therapist- they will know how beneficial they can be! Also, if you see a change after just a single appointment (as we did), you will know for yourself. Our son was behind in speech when he was 3 and we had all the signs - drooly as a baby, choked as bites weren’t being fully chewed, smile was not “muscular” - but we didn’t know what it meant until the therapist asked us and then told us why, lack of muscle tone in his jaw. Within 3 months, three of his classmates were going as their parents were so impressed by our sons’ speech improvements that they wanted their own children to get perfect patterns formed early.
Fix the problem before he finds other ways to compensate! You’ll be very glad you did. Also, find a therapist that you respect and your child works well with as it really is a lot of work!
:smack: “vowel”
Take him to a speech pathologist and they will determine whether regular speech therapy is necessary.
My daughter has been going weekly for about three years for one on one, plus two group sessions through school. She has autism and a lot of auditory processing issues more than speech itself but I’m happy with it. The speech therapist at the rehab center is 1200 dollars a month for four hours. Her state insurance pays so I don’t know what the rates are if you have cash.
Oh sorry I didn’t realize you weren’t in the U.S.
“Stammer”, I believe.
Having just looked it up and found that “brabbelen” is something babies are expected to start doing around six months–I stand corrected. It translates as “babble”.
My daughter started speech therapy at 3, and I was always told that the earlier the intervention, the better. At first we had something called First Steps (Indiana) that was free as a part of a program from the state, and then we hired a private speech/language pathologist which was $75 an hour session twice a week. She has also gotten speech through school, but we kept the private therapist because we felt she got more out of that than with the school therapists.
the sooner the better. 3.5 is not at all young for this type of therapy. Highly advised.
Let us know how his eval. goes!
My son and I went to see our family doctor. I had brought one of his picture books and he started telling the doc the story. She thought he was delayed enough to give me a referral to a speech therapist. She also wanted to check his mouth to see if there were any deformities. But he wouldn’t let her. But the pediatrician had mentioned to us earlier that our son had a short tongue-tie. Not enough to cause the speech delay, but it might have been a contributing factor.
Anyway, with the doc’s referral we went to see a speech therapist. (covered by insurance, yeah!) She said the dealy didn’t cause her immediate concern, but that we could bring our son next week for a systematic evaluation. So that will be next week.
In the meantime, in the last two weeks, his speech has improved by leaps and bounds. If he goes on like this, I don’t think we will get speech therapy.
Had part two of a preliminary test with the speech therapist yesterday. The average score on that test is 100; Under 85, therapy is indicated; my son scored 86. But she wants to redo the test because my son was wayward and shy on the day of testing.
To be continued…