Unusual Speech

My first son had a problem like this and it worried me. One thing I did was take him to the doctor and come to find out he needed to get tubes in his ears. Since it took me a while to figure out that he just was not hear right, it ended up taking longer for him to speak correctly. I highly recommend that she see a doctor. The longer they wait, the harder it will be for her to learn. IF she is not hearing the sounds correctly, then she can not pronounce them. My son is now 11 and he lets me know when something is up with his ears. We have to clean them regularly to make sure there is no wax buildup in them. This is also a problem that she could have. You can get it done by the doctor, or there are some solutions that you can buy at the store. I personally like to use a cleaning tool. It seems to do the job very well and my son can tell the difference when his ears are done.

Good Luck.

V.- I am a developmental preschool teacher for a public school in the valley and I would recommend that this little one be evaluated by her neighborhood school. Every school district is required by federal law to have what is called CHild Find procedures to rule out any type of delays in children ages 3-5. Your niece fits this criteria with her difficulty with speech production. The preschool programs and or speech services offered by the school district are FREE to your family member and VERY beneficial at helping children prepare for the school age years. Many of my students come in with similar difficulties and leave ready for Kindergarten and all it has to offer because their parents got them help early. Some insurances will also cover speech delays. Have you also talked with the pediatrician she goes to? They can be invaluable at looking for services for you as well. Hope this helps. Please feel free to email me with any questions you have: ____@____.com.

Both of my kids did this. Luckily I have a speech pathologist in the family!!! For my daughter it was ending consonants, for my son it's the beginning. When they would say a word without all of the letters, I would in turn say duck - K - K. Then I would make them say the K sound - so that I knew they were physically able to say it. The one that took the longest was S. Still to this day I have to ask my daughter occasionally "Where's your snake sound?" and she'll say the s sound. My son has picked up on this too and randomly says the s sound!! :) You can also string words together like "Pizza Pie" and really emphesize the P when you say them, or sly snake. We used to sing a song in choir "One sly snake slid up the slide, the other sly snake slid down" and "one purple penguin popped up the pole, the other purple penguin popped down".
I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to make sure that all is well with her hearing and development, too. At least when you are around you can work with her on the beginning sounds, though.

You should suggest that your niece be evaluated. You can have it done for free through your local school district. If she qualifies, she will receive free developmental preschool and speech therapy. You can start once potty trained at age 3. My son is in the program in our local area and he is doing great! His speech has improved tremendously since he began only 5 months ago. He was not giving voice to the last letter of words, just the opposite of your niece. His behavior has also improved tremendously, as he is no longer frustrated in trying to communicate with others. I highly recommend getting help now, so she doesn't have any problems when she starts school at 5. Good luck!

S.

my 3 yr old son does the same thing but opposite (says first syllable but not last) I took him to a speech therapist they went through their tests($$)and said I needed to work with him more, really get on him about these words so instead of being lazy I had to really catch it every time and just make him say it right, if he said du I would stop what we were doing and have him sound it out du-K (duck):) He is getting a lot better so what I suggest with your niece is sounding out the words with her and give praise when she says the full word

All kids develop speech at different rates and in different ways. My daughter didn't really start talking until about 2 and now she can't stop talking. Many words she says wrong - but it is a time for them to experiment with sounds and words and gradually she is improving.

If your niece seem to be improving speech over time that is a good sign. There are some kids who actually have hearing problems (too much wax in ears believe it or not) or other hearing issues not detected earlier. It can't hurt to get testing just in case. A stitch in time saves 9.

Good Morning,
Depending on where she lives, ther are FREE screening offered by the Public schools to identify developmental delays. Here in Arizona, Free Pre-school is mandatory for those children identified --- it includes Speech, Adaptive PE, Occopational Theraphy, Physical Theraphy, Ect. depending on the cild's needs and includes free transportation to and from home.
My oldest daughter teach Pre-school in teh Roosevelt School District. Gilbert pioneered the Early Childhood intervention and free Pre-school back in the 1980's before it was a state mandate.
Let me know if we can help.
S.

We had a similar situation with our now 9 yr old. She just would not say her "s"'s. So if someone was in her "spot" she would say "get out of my pot", but you put a "ph" in front of the "s" she had no problem, "psychadelic" had been her favorite word. One day at about 5 and 1/2 she just started saying them. I would repeat the words she is saying wrong the right way and just wait it out.

Hi My son had problems like that and it was a form of dyslexia. It seems he saw letters upside down. A lady in my area took him under her wing and helped him get over it. You could look this up in the computer and find someone to help. He is now grown and owns his own business and has now problems with this.

Hi V.,

I had this issue with my second child. She had an earwax build up problem. We ended up having to irrigate her ears regularly for years until it finally went away. She did the same exact thing with the speech, so have your neice checked out for the earwax build up, it made a world of difference for my daughter. Once she could hear properly she just took off in her speech and learning. She could read words like transmission and computer ate age 5. She is now almost 19 and is working for the state of California. Good luck and God bless.

D.

My daughter was also a late bloomer with her speech development. She just turned three and is saying tons of words, but still doesn't enunciate very well - usually the first letter of words. As long as your son is trying to say words and you understand them I don't think there is a reason to be concerned at this age because all children develop at different stages. However, if you are really worried about him you should ask your pediatrician if your son should see a speech therapist.

PLEASE,GET HER EVALUATED. THE SOONER SHE GETS INTERVENTION THE BETTER.cALL FOR ANITA WERNER @ PEDIATRIC SPEECH & LANGUAGE SPECIALIST IN SCOTTSDALE

Hopefully she wont need a specialist but see if she can get the evaluation as soon as possible. As I understand it, theres only 9 pediatric speech therapists in the state and therefore a very long waiting list. :)

My daughter has a speech impedement. I noticed just like you did that something was not right. I took her to the peditrician and they told me about a school in Phx that does hearing tests and speech tests for her IEP's. They did it and found out that she definately has a speech impedement.

My twin boys started Speech through the Chandler Unified School District after being evaluated at age 3. It is a wonderful program; they are 6 now and evaluated annually. They will be in for at least one more year. It is very helpful the public schools offer programs like this. Best wishes!

V.,
My daughter did the same thing at that age, and I was very concerned. I had her evaluated at the local school, and they told me that she could make the sounds but she was just lazy about it. They said she was not eligible for services unless she continued doing the same thing when she was much older. At that time, I started staying home with her, and within one month the problem corrected itself! For me, that was a testament to how important it is for moms to be at home!!!

You should definitely try to convince her parents to have her speech evaluated for their own peace of mind, and if something is going on early intervention always makes the biggest and fastest difference. Services are free through the school district, so there's nothing to lose.

My daughter had some of the same issues. Even when I said the word to her, she could not really say the beginning or ending sounds of words very clearly. We took her to an ENT who did a hearing test and we found out that bec. of the fluid in her ears (no real history of ear infections) she was hearing as if she had a pillow over her head. They put tubes in and determined that it was enlarged adenoids that were causing the drainage into her ears so they removed them. After the surgery we were in a Target bathroom while picking up her medication and she complained to me how loud everything was. We noticed a significant speech improvement quickly. I also referred her to the elementary school just to be safe and they tested her for speech etc. Everything was fine but it was good to have her tested to know for sure. Good luck.

Hi V.,

I had problems with my daughter and I put her into a free special preschool. They had to test her and help her see where her problems were and she has articulation problems. She is now in 1st grade fixing to be 2nd and is still in speech theripy and doing GREAT!!!!

I would get her hearing checked. We had a grandson who had trouble with his words until they found out that he had allergies that were filling his ear canals so that he couldn't hear well. If you can't hear, you can't speak.

I think that may be normal for her age. I have four children and two of them talked young and two of them didn't really start talking until age 2 1/2. They all had different things that they would say that wasn't quite right. My 7 year old will still say things that aren't quite right and she is very mature for her age. My 5 year old still has trouble with some words. My daughter couldn't say her r's for a long time and I was told she needed speech therapy. I just worked with her to practice saying her r's correctly and now she is fine. My nephew who just turned 4 doesn't talk at all. He is going to speech therapy and a special school and now he says some things but not a lot. I think your niece is quite young. Even though my nephew didn't talk at all, no one recommended anything until he was 3 1/2 and was getting close to school age. If your niece still has trouble when she gets older, you can practice with her to say them correctly. Good luck!

It won't hurt to get her evaluated. My son has a speech delay and I talked to our pediatrician about it and he was the one that actually gave me the phone numbers and the information on the speech programs in the public schools. Since she is three, she would qualify for free preschool.

My son was accepted into the program in the Spring of 2007 and he is doing awesome. He went to the Special Education preschool for the first three months and then this past fall he started going to a preschool at a public school. He goes for free and they pull him out once a week to work on his speech.

Some of the speech patterns that you are referring to, are perfectly normal for a child her age. There are certain letters that children are not able to master right away. They can be as old as 8 before being able to master certain sounds. Definitely suggest to her mother to get her tested. It took about two hours of our morning and it was well worth it.

My son didn't start speaking until around 2 and 1/2 and he also doesn't always pronounce the first letters. My son is being testing for autism.