speech therapy

jake has been recommended for speech therapy, but it turns out Palmy is desperate for therapist (is currently advertising for two full time positions), and my dc worker seems to think there is a 16 week waiting list.

so was wondering if anyone knows anything about what they do, and if there is anything I could start doing at home .

He struggles with pronunciation and enunciation.

He can't say "sss" and lisps :thhhhh"
Struggles with initial consonant sounds, in particular "n" and "t" e.g "ninja turtles" become "inja urtle".

I know a bit about first language aquisition and such, but not sure about activities that would suit a child.

I had speech therapy when I was six, cos I lisped my sss sound to be "th". Pretty much the lady gave me an exercise book into which she pasted lots of activities that I had to do, adding a couple of new ones each week. I had to do them to practice every night at home.

Ones I remember included a curled up snake, that pulled out of the page, and I had to say "sssssssss!" as I pulled it out. Also there was the card game memory, and everything was an "s-word", and as you turned each card over you had to say what it was - you know the game - the idea is to find pairs amongst the cards all face down on the table. Ummm... there were a couple of stories to read that had heaps of s-words. Ones I found particularly difficult were words like "thistle" that had th AND s, so there were lots of those kind of words too.

I do remember the first day I went there she actually taught me how to make an 'ssss' sound - something to do with put your tongue down in your mouth instead of up against your teeth? - I can't remember how she explained it, but for me that was a real eureka moment because until then I didn't really understand what I was getting wrong.

I hope thats of some help. My mum possibly still has the book if you wanted me to see if she could track it down for you?

awesome!   thanks

Flissty, he's four. the problem with how he says "s", is he puts his tongue between his teeth. i showed him how, but he couldn't see the difference (or do it himself)

I'm an SLT too and work with preschoolers... I wouldn't treat a interdental lisp in a child of that age as Flissty quoted it is quite common at that age and often corrects without any intervention. Are you on the waitlist for a service through special education? it's just a child who is only presenting with an interdental lisp wouldn't meet the criteria for a service. Is he deleting lots of initial sounds?? as the example you provided with the ninja turtles would suggest he could be deleting initial consonants? Has any assessment of his speech been undertaken?

It must be very frustrating waiting for an assessment.... Unfortunately without any initial speech assessment it would be unethical to make any specific suggestions regarding intervention. My main suggestion would be to keep on hounding them for an assessment - the squeaky wheel and all I would think at 4 years if he does meet the criteria for intervention following all the assessments he will be picked up fairly quickly as he is approaching school age. Intervention for speech disorder/delay is much more effective in children of his age than when implemented at a younger age as they have more of a cognitive understanding of why they are doing these things... so you definitely haven't missed the boat by waiting another few months for your assessment.

At this point I would recommend really focusing on modelling correct articulation to him. So when he says something incorrectly, you model it back correctly. E.g. DS "look inja urtles" you "yes ninja turtles, ninja turtles are..., I like ninja turtles". Try not to repeat the incorrect production (i.e. saying " no not inja it's ninja) it is better he just hears several repetitions of the correct production... You can incorporate modelling into everyday conversation...

Also you could work on sound awareness skills... I'd just start with talking about the sounds words being with... oh look it's a dog, dog start with a /d/ sound.... you could make a scrapbook of sounds so one page for each sound... or playing eyespy with sounds rather than letters ...concentrate on sounds not letter names as that's what will help more with speech...

But definitely keep ringing !!!

I've just come across this post. I am a private Speech-Language Therapist for children. I hope it being over 2 years since being posted that your child has received the help he needs.



Edited by Kelz