Stressed about speech :( Help please

[daneuse27]

My daughter (turning 5 next week) has just started speech therapy for pronunciation. She is mispronouncing a number of sounds in words, including, but not limited to:

- s (has frontal lisp)
-z (frontal lisp)
-r (North American R, cannot say at all)
-'th' in the, there, etc. (often makes 'd' sound instead)
-l at the end of words, (little, etc) sometimes doesnt say

There are probably others too, but those are the main problems.
She was evaluated last week, and her vocabulary and grammar are advanced for her age. Her sentences are longer than the average child her age, so that is good. She also understands 2 languages. Overall Im proud of my daughter's achievement in these areas, but Im super stressed about her pronunciation not being where it should be by now.

In the past, she also had a stuttering problem. I put off getting her therapy for pronunciation, because I was just so happy she was speaking with fluency. Now that shes about to be 5, and her childhood is going so fast, Im getting her some help.

Not sure if I have a specific question, but if anyone has heard of a kid with similar strengths/struggles, or has any tips Id love to hear them.

 

[sequeena]

Hi my son has an articulation and phonological speech sound disorder. His last speech report (October 2016) said that he has several problems

- fronting of alveolar and fricative sounds like d which he says as b and s which he says as f
- final consonant deletion
- gliding of liquids r will become w so zebra is zebwa
- cluster reduction within single words so snake is nake
- idiosyncratic processes which are unique to him he mainly says god for dog
Backing so j is g (but it says that this is not a typical sound process within a child's speech sound development)

I wouldn't say he's made a massive improvement in these areas since last year so these are the things he does at school according to the report (he refuses to do anything with me). This is what he does at school.

- oro-motor exercises. They do Mr Tongue https://www.speechnet.com.au/mr-tongue-ebook-tongue-movments/
- improve auditory discrimination skills using POPAT programme. https://www.popat.co.uk/
- make sure we have his full attention before we give instructions (he has severe glue ear alongside this so his hearing is not great).
- encourage him to look at our mouths when speaking and lower our body to his level when speaking.
- ensure distractions in the learning environment are kept to a minimum
- reduce the amount of words in a sentence as he only understands 3 key words within instructions e.g. Give me the small red teddy bear
- repeat key words and give instructions at a slower pace of speech
- give instructions in sequential order (coat and then home)
- model accurate sentence structures e.g. Twee 'yes Thomas that is a tree'
- place particular emphasis on the word you are attempting to model and encourage him to look at your articulators when modelling
- use visual time tables and timers in a 1:1 environment and within the classroom environment so he knows how many activities he has to do and how long he is expected to work for.

I hope some of thIs helps, I doubt all of it will be applicable as Thomas also has a learning disability and sensory processing difficulties so a lot of it is keeping his attention as even though he is 6 he functions at around the 3-3.5 year level.

He's also undergoing a stutter assessment (his father has one) but they're unsure if he has a true stutter or if it's the normal stutter children have from around 1.5-3 years. We'll have to see how he develops.