Question for speech therapists

amother

Mon, Oct 18 2021, 10:40 pm

I have 2 questions. My daughter is 3 and has a very nice vocabulary. She speaks rather clear, other than the average articulation that is age appropriate. She does have 2 issues I'm concerned about.

1. She lisps. She had tongue tie when she was born, so I was expecting it might happen. Is that covered by speech or is it considered articulation?

2. She can't say anything ending in "or". For more, she says moy (sounding like toy). For door, she says doy. Same for floor, sounds like floy. Is that something normal that she'll figure out? Or should I have her evaluated for that?

amother

Aquamarine

Mon, Oct 18 2021, 10:44 pm

Lisps are covered by speech therapy as they involve the misarticulation of sounds. Phonemes, or sounds, sound distorted.

I think every student can benefit from speech services, its never a bad thing to me.

-school aged SLP with a few pre school kiddos on my caseload Wink

amother

Mon, Oct 18 2021, 10:46 pm

amother [ Aquamarine ] wrote:

Thank you. That was helpful, I though lisp wasn't covered. Do you think now is a good time to have her evaluated or is she more likely to get services when she's a little older?

amother

Aquamarine

Mon, Oct 18 2021, 11:09 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Thank you. That was helpful, I though lisp wasn't covered. Do you think now is a good time to have her evaluated or is she more likely to get services when she's a little older?

what does her morah say?

it might be hard for her to get approved for speech if her only issue is a lisp. you'll have to get her morah on board and say shes not doing well academically etc.

really the only thing to do to treat a lisp is to demonstrate the correct placement of where her tongue should be.

In all honestly, a lisp is normal until age 6. What sounds is she misarticulating?

amother

Tue, Oct 19 2021, 12:58 am

amother [ Aquamarine ] wrote:

Haven't yet spoken to her morah. But the second question in my op is my real concern. Is it normal for a child to say doy for door? Or moy for more?

amother

Bone

Tue, Oct 19 2021, 7:01 am

bsy wrote:

R is a later developing sound. Both those issues are normal developmentally

Another speech therapist in agreement here. Both the sounds you mention commonly develop later than age 3 so if they are the only two sounds she’s not pronouncing correctly and she is overall intelligible I would not give her therapy (and with the exception of the first poster who responded, I’m pretty sure most SLP’s would agree).

amother

Tue, Oct 19 2021, 7:29 am

Those are not the only sounds she can't pronounce, but those are the only ones I was questioning if it's normal. Saying moy (sounding like toy) for more is more than just articulation, it's mispronouncing the whole word.

She also says miwk for milk and sabbos for shabbos, but those I know are age appropriate.

seeker

Wed, Oct 20 2021, 10:55 am

You can get an evaluation but they very rarely give speech therapy to a 3 year old for just a few articulation concerns since there's still a lot of developmental variation.

I disagree with the post above that there's no harm in unnecessary therapy. Kids get burned out so if they have issues in any area later in childhood they may have a very hard time participating in therapy. You do what you have to do but every choice has its effects. Generally we want to intervene quickly on issues that are likely to snowball and affect future development, but I don't know of any harm in waiting until 5 to judge if the lisp etc are still problematic.

amother

Oldlace

Wed, Oct 20 2021, 11:45 am

Another SLP here. The earliest I eould treat an /s/ sound is age 5. I would do /r/ at 6 or preferably 7. I would not evaluate her now. These errors are normal for her age and may correct themselves.

FranticFrummie

Wed, Oct 20 2021, 11:53 am

I had speech therapy at age 6 for tongue thrust. I can't imagine that I would have been even remotely compliant at an earlier age. I didn't understand exactly what the therapist wanted from me, even though it was explained and demonstrated at almost every session.

A game that I play with little kids who have trouble with R sounds is to ask them "What does a lion say?" and of course, the kid goes "Grrrrrrrr!" This proves to me that they can make R sounds in certain contexts. Then I ask them to say two words together, starting with the lion sound.

"Grrrrrrrrrrr-rabbit" "Grrrrrrrrrrr-red" "Grrrrrrrrr-room" etc. If they can manage it, then I slowly have them take out the G sound, and just do "Rrrrrrrrrrrrabbit", etc. Sometimes I change it around, and have them try "G-rrrrrrrabbit"

If the can't do it, at least they had silly fun. If they do manage, they are super proud of themselves. I never let on that I'm doing anything except playing a game.