4 Year old-Speech Problem or Normal? L's and N's

Please have him evaluated. As an adult, who, as a child had a speech impediment, this is really important to seek therapy. I am thankful that my mom worked so hard to find me therapy. My own mis-cues would not have solved itself. We stopped therapy some time when I was around the third grade because I refused to work. But I asked my mom to go back to therapy when I was in middle school because I realized that I sounded different. I think one school year later, my issues were clear but I needed to be taught how to change it.

My middle son has a speech issue too, more severe than mine was. He actually receives not only speech therapy but also OT to help him.

This isn't a death sentence. Don't be sad that someone was looking out for your child. As parents we are often too close to the problem to realize that there is a problem. This issue will most likely be solved in a few years and he and you will be thankful that you sought treatment.

Good luck.

Because of the tubes, you could first go to the audiolgist and have his hearing tested, since you don't think he can hear his errors. If he is intellegible, then you may have time to wait it out. I would suggest that you know for sure if you need therapy or not, and I would not set out to DIY a true articulation disorder if he has one, instead of articulation errors that are still within the typical limits of his age.

Write to your school district and ask for a speech evaluation because you susepect that your son has a speech disorder. I would not expect services based on mild articulation errors, but you will get some scores in the evaluation data that will give you some idea of where he is in the bell curve because the evaluation instruments will give you numbers based on his performance compared to children of his exact age, and a large number of them. The number should be based on the number 100, and more than that is above the average, and less than that is below. You should also get some sense from this evaluation if his difficulty is just articulation, or if he also has trouble with langague, and his IQ will be screened, so you will get a sense of processing concern. You should pay careful attention to the numbers, more than a single area of concern should suggest to you that this is a difficulty that he will not just out grow, even if the school district decideds to turn you away for therapy. The school's bar is very low, they only have to make him "funcitonal" in the classroom, and while many districts do more, they certainly do not have to. If he gets therapy from the school, I would highly recomend that you also get a private evaluation becasue you need to be certain that the school is providing all that he needs, and since they are not required to do that, it is a safe bet that he will need more privately, which is just the nature of public serivces.

Intellegiblity is the issue usually. It is very odd that you say that strangers don't notice it. How do you know that? Maybe they are just not saying anything? Just a thought to toss out there, I am astounded sometimes how many people will wait until Mom and child are gone to say "did you hear that?" Just want to caution you that you may notice it less, not more, than people who don't know him (or you) well, and don't want to risk being rude.

One thing to think about too, a private speech evaluation is usually covered by insurance so call and check. They are not very expensive, even if not covered, and a speech evaluation is a win-win. You either walk out the door knowing that you are going to get your child help that they really need, or you know for certain that they are fine and don't need help. Development is just far, far too important to leave to chance, and chance. Catch it early, even if the chance is tiny.

M.

http://www.babycenter.com/6_your-4-1-2-year-old-dealing-w...

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Speech-Disorders-987/4-year-ol...

I think the answers from these professionals will be helpful to you.

My younger daughter used a binkie extensively until she was 2, and as such she learned to speak with it in her mouth. That caused her to have all kinds of speech issues! Anyhow, a good friend of mine is a speech therapist and I asked her about it. (My daughter couldn't say ch, sh, th, r, L sounds.) She said that it is very normal for kids this age to have these types of pronunciation problems. Her recommendation was to sit in front of a mirror with the child and slowly and clearly repeat words to the child. For instance you would say LION slowly so he can see the shape your mouth makes as you say each sound. Then have him try to repeat it. If he has trouble with L, show him how your mouth forms the L-L-L sound. Do this for a few minutes a day, as long as he will sit with you and not get bored. (She told me that either I could pay her or some other speech therapist a lot of money to do this, or I could do it, it's the same difference because that's exactly what they do in therapy, apparently.)

Well, my little one just wouldn't sit still with me to do this practice anyway, so I kind of let it slide, and she grew out of it on her own. I guess it's pretty normal for kids to have speech issues of all kinds until around the age of 6. My daughter grew out of it around 4.5.

I'm not sure about N but I know that L is one of the sounds that lots of little kids have trouble with sometimes until the are kindergarten/1st grade. If you are concerned your town's elementary school can do an evaluation for you at no cost to you. Just a simple call over to them sometimes you need to put the request in writing but my kids' school is very good about it. If they think he needs speech he will be get free services from the school. I would say call Early Intervention but their age cut off is 3.

With my daughter I was told if she could say the sounds in the middle of words then she had the sound, and didn't need speech therapy for it. For her it was sounds at the beginning of words too. They told me just to continue modeling instead of correcting "oh, you knee hurts" if he says "my mee hurts". I have to do this now with parts of speech to help correct "meeted" and "drawed" :)
All her sounds came right when she learned to read and noticed for herself that she was saying certain words incorrectly.

This is normal. My kids are 5 and they can say those now, but they are twins and so they are always talking. For a single it takes longer. My three year old is can't say alot of letters yet and he is a big talker. Hey, every kid develops differently, and I wouldn't worry about it. He will out grow these as he gets older.

Definitely seek out speech therapy with your school district. One person said to write your district with your concerns. I think you should just call. That's what I did. My two youngest sons have attended Kyrene School District's preschool program since they were 3yo for FREE and received speech therapy with it because of their speech and language delays. Seek this out now before Kindergarten and then your child should be able to continue with speech therapy in K.

My 6yo also received private speech therapy from approx. 2.5 - 3.5 years old. The evaluation for this was a few hundred dollars.

We started private speech therapy again over this past summer, but with a Speech Pathologist from our school district. She is continuing to work with both of them once a week now that school is in session.

I really really love the preschool program. Half of the class are "typical" and the other half are "atypical" (mainly speech and language therapy).

My guys have progressed a ton, but definitely still need more therapy.
As their Speech Pathologists say, mine kind of have their own unique speech patterns that they haven't seen before. They leave off lots of syllables - either the beginning or ending ones from words... and sometimes both. sh, f, s, ch, l are just a few of their challenges

best of luck to you

My son turned 4 in July and I actually just took him to a screening with the Mesa Public School district last Wednesday. I was mainly concerned about his language because he doesn't talk as clearly as his friends and he had trouble with his L's too. He would say ball just fine, but would say wong instead of long and sweep instead of sleep. The MPSD does a whole evaluation on vision, hearing, motor, cognitive, social, and language and it's free. My son totally passed the screening. They said that L is one of the later developing sounds and at age 4 they should be 80% intelligible. Also, since he did pronounce the L in some words they thought he was fine. I say, if you are concerned go ahead and get it checked out and then you will know and not worry about it.