Speech - Coolidge,AZ

Speech therapy. Every child is different, so every child will progress differently, but by 3 there should be a good amount of comprehendable speech in a 3 year old.

My oldest had a severe delay. He was 5 and could barely talk, along with his speech delay was a severe comprehension disorder. He was on the extreme end.

The next 5 were average. Nothing that set them apart, but clearly not behind. They started talking around 2.

The 7th was a little more advanced then them. He started talking at 19 months.

My 8th, who is 3 right now, can talk an adult in circles. Most people, based just off her speech alone can not believe she is only 3. She's petite though so people really end up confused. She started at 17 months.

So from experience there is a wide range, but like I said by 3 there should be fairly decent communication skills.

I do think it is perfectly normal. In fact, most kids mispronounce up to half of all sounds until the age of 5.

You need to get your child to a speech therapist, have an evaluation done, and get speech therapy. Early intervention is extremely important. My own son had severe speech issues and I started with him when he was two.

Please don't wait any longer. You've wanted too long as it is. I promise you that you will understand what I'm saying after you read her evaluation report.

What does her pediatrician say? Preschool teacher? How's her hearing? History of ear infections?
Here in California speech evaluations are provided by the state at age three and services are offered when/if needed.
Mispronouncing, lisping, things like that are normal at that age but I'd be worried is most of her words weren't fairly clear.
Often if they aren't speaking clearly then they aren't hearing clearly either. Get her checked out.

At age three, children should speak in full sentences and I would say that the majority of things they say should be fully understood the first time they say it. Pronunciation should be progressing at a steady pace and so should comprehension of more words and their meanings. Articulation may not be 100% perfect but problems with solid "r", "s","L", and "y" need to be looked at if there are issues at this age. Speech is one of those things that will not fully improve if the proper therapy and exercises aren't put forth to fix the problems. Your best bet if you know that many people cannot understand your child when she talks is to arrange an appointment with your pediatrician and have her evaluated. Your county may also have a speech evaluation program such as Birth to Three that can also help you. It's better to take action now than to let this linger. One of my daughters needed speech therapy for problems with pronunciation of certain sounds and I got her into a speech program at age three. At six months into therapy, improvement was well under way and by a year....her speech was pure perfection and has been ever since!

Talk to your pediatrician. They can tell you who to contact. My daughter he's been in speech therapy preschool since she was 3 and its been a god send! She loves it and its free. A small student to teacher ratio and lots of new great playmates and parents with similar issues. Don't be scared of 'labeling' your child. Great services are put there but you need to be proactive and advocate for them. You won't be sorry. :)

if you have a concern.. call your local school district and have her evaluated. The schools must provide free speech therapy and free evaluation for her. if your dr. writes a prescription.. you can take her to a speech therapist and it might be covered by your health insurance..

both of my kids had speech therapy one at age 3 and one at age 5 it was so effective.. their problems were solved in a month or so.

You stated your daughter has a speech delay. Do you know what type? Expressive? Receptive? Tongue-tied? Unfortunately what is typical varies greatly from one child to another. If she has not been formally evaluated get to her pediatrician or to your counties birth to three program to do an evaluation. There's no harm in knowing if there's something to be concerned about or not.

In my experience I have one child who had a huge vocabulary and could read by age 3. I also have one child who was nonverbal until 6 years old - yes he is autistic so that's partly where it comes from; sorry I could not offer anymore advice.

Good luck.

Have you mentioned this to your pediatrician? I think you should. I don't know what "normal" is, but I think by 3 years you'd be looking for a percentage higher than 50.

Since she's already 3, talk to someone at your local elementary school. She can be evaluated by a speech therapist there, and she can receive services through the school.

If she has a speech delay, it's best to nip this in the bud as soon as possible. You don't want it to slow her down when she goes to preschool and kindergarten.

She should qualify to go to the early start program at your local elementary school. She'll be able to get a head start on everyone else that does not have this problem. They will also work with her by use of the speech therapists implementation goals. They'll work on those with her during school lessons.

If you go to parentcenter.com and enter your child's birth date and other information to get registered they'll send you all sorts of emails about where she should be.

I wish I could tell you what normal is, but I don't really know. I have a 3 year 10 month old who has been talking in clear sentences since she was about 15 months. I also have a 27 month old who only pronounces the first syllable of the word he is trying to say, and this is HUGE progress with speech 2x week. But, I know its not normal from what the speech therapists have said. I would talk to them to see what normal really is. I really just wanted to let you know that you are not alone in this question and I have been wondering the same thing. I know my little guy should talk more, and I know most 3 year olds don't use words like Stupendous, and Magnificent, but mine does. Hang in there mama, it sounds like you are doing just fine! She is making progress and that is what we really want and need right?

My 3yo was just evaluated today for her speech. She was in speech therapy through Early Intervention for about a year, but we took this summer off because we couldn't afford the gas to drive 30 minutes to therapy.

She apparently made quite a bit of progress on her own over the summer, as she tested 'normal' for her actual speech. I'm still waiting for the results of her articulation, to see if she will receive therapy through the school district now that she has aged out of EI.

I will say, that I think the BIGGEST help with developing her speech was reading to her, and having her 'read' with me. I will read a sentence, then have her repeat it. I go for two goals.... One is to get her to say as many words straight as she can, the other is to get her to say them clearly. I never do both at the same time though. So one page we will go word-by-word, and I will focus on correcting her articulation in the way her speech therapist showed me. The next page I will let the sound errors slide, but try to stop her from dropping words in the middle of a sentence, or to get her to say as many words straight as she can. When we started doing this in May, she barely had 2 word sentences and even I could barely understand her, and strangers couldn't at all. Now, she is using 5-7 word sentences, and is able to string sentences together when speaking on her own... I can understand her about 75% of the time, and strangers about 1/2 the time. A HUGE leap for her!

I would suggest asking her pediatrician for a referral for a speech evaluation through your school district. (She is too old now for Early Intervention, so you will need to do it through the school or a private therapist.) get her evaluated by a professional, and go from there. :)

Good luck!

If you worry about her speech then have her evaluated through your local early childhood program. I had DD evaluated at 4, then again at almost 5. She was evaluated by an independent person the second time who said her delays were minor and referred me to her elementary school (by that point she had aged out of Child Find). DD does not need therapy at this time, but I have things to work with her on and she is on the speech pathologist's "watch list" so if she continues to not improve her articulation, they will work with her. I started to be concerned when she was about 3. There is no harm in asking about it. Start with your pediatrician if you don't know how to find the early intervention people.

If she has a speech delay, does that mean she is currently receiving services? My son has a speech delay and has been receiving services for almost 3 years. He is about 4 1/2 now. He was receiving services through a local clinic, but once he turned 3 I called the school district and had him evaluated. I took him to speech each week (for about 30 minutes), but now that he's in PreK he goes to speech during school.

It's very hard to say what is "normal." It is normal for kids to make articulation errors. There are some errors that are very normal for 3 year olds. My oldest worked on the "th" sound while in kindergarten, though it's normal for 6 year olds to still be working on that sound. Most 5 year olds should have mastered the various "r" sounds. I'm pretty sure there are some sounds that are mastered at age 7 or 8. I'm really not sure, just repeating what I remember our speech therapist telling me.

When you say "less than half of her words are understandable and clear," do you mean they are not correct? Or others do not know what she said? If they are simply not correct - maybe "three" sounds like "free" or "yellow" sounds like "yeyow" - but you know what she means, that would probably be an articulation error that you would want to work on. But if other people don't even know what she's saying, I would definitely be calling the school to set up an evaluation.

If she isn't currently receiving services, definitely call the school and get an evaluation. If she is receiving services, mention your concerns. I'm sure a speech therapist would be happy to talk to you about what they've been working on, what the plans are, the progress your daughter is making, etc.

How are you working with her to help her to speak correctly?

Have you had her hearing checked?

Does anyone she is in contact with regularly have a speech issue?

Time to talk to the pediatrician.

Meh...I think that many times the "speech delayed" label gets thrown at kids prematurely. If she qualifies for intervention and you think it will help, great. But for most kids, it's just a matter of time. My oldest son was an early talker in terms of individual words and could speak clearly but couldn't really string those words together into complete thoughts easily until he was 3. He was later dx'd with ADHD inattentive and learning disabilities, but in terms of number of words and clarity of speech, he was far and away ahead of my younger children by years and the younger ones have no learning issues.

My younger sons were both late talkers. With my 2nd son, his pedi would have done an EI referral if he didn't know 10 words by his second birthday. He knew 10, maybe 12. He added some words over the next year but had a ridiculous lisp and was largely unintelligible even to my husband and me but both his pedi and his daycare said to not worry about it. We had him tested for hearing loss at some point because I was convinced that his history of ear infections affected his hearing and speech (his hearing was 100% fine). At 3.5, everything seemed to click and he was suddenly speaking in full, clear sentences, non-stop. He's 9 and I swear hasn't stopped talking since then.

My youngest son followed a similar pattern only he was even later to speak and even now at age 7 still has trouble with the "r" sound but despite several evaluations was never referred for speech services because all of his garbled sounds were normal for his age.

If you're really curious, you can ask your pediatrician and she or he should be able to tell you if what you perceive as a delay is within normal for her age range or if she would qualify for and benefit from speech therapy.