Speech Therapy {The Ordinary Moments}
A few months ago I wrote about Little Man being referred for speech therapy but I hadn’t had a chance to update since then. You see, Little Man started and finished speech therapy in just a few months, he did so well that there wasn’t really time for a halfway update.
When he started speech therapy they worked out that he dropped the last sounds from words, saying the first consonant and then just rolling all the vowels together with no real pronunciation. He couldn’t say C, K or G sounds at all and instead he would pronounce them as a T or F to compensate and just fill in the gaps.
Each session was spent with his speech therapist explaining to him how to make sounds, showing him pictures for him to name and getting him to repeat words when he’d heard them correctly.
He went once a month and then we would do work at home with him, repeating words, asking him if ‘cat’ was a ‘tat’ like he had said or actually ‘cat’. We’d do this with so many words in normal conversation and slowly but surely he got the hang of different sounds and they would become habit.
Now, if he says just one word at a time it is more often than not pronounced in the right way and he just forgets himself when he says a big sentence or is excited when he’s talking and then it can all roll into one again.
But now he really only has trouble with blended sounds – where there are two consonants together. Things like Sm, Cr, Tr, Sc etc. But, children his age often have difficulty with these sounds and grow into pronouncing them correctly so he has finished his speech therapy and we are now just carrying on helping him at home.
He has done so well and we are so, so proud as a few months ago strangers couldn’t understand him, now the majority of the time everyone can understand him and it makes him so much happier and less frustrated too. Now, he just loves to talk!
If you have an ordinary moment this week, come and link up – I’m looking forward to reading the moments that you share and will comment and share them on Twitter through the course of the week. Thanks so much for taking part!
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A real proud mummy moment. We are watching J at the moment as her pronunciation seems to be little off in some areas and her teacher will give her feedback at Christmas. It sounds like amazingly fast progress and well done Little Man x
Bless him – I’m not surprised your proud. Sounds like he’s done so, so well. x
When we met up over the summer I had forgotten all about this as he spoke so clearly and I could understand him without even thinking about it. Well done little man x
Love your photo – West Green House is a favourite haunt of ours. Glad the speech therapy is helping.
I’m so glad it has gone well Donna. I have asked a couple of times about speech therapy for Lia but keep being told she’ll grow out of her pronunciation problems. I’m not sure she will and this seems like such a perfect solution I’m going to ask again.
Nat.x
The first stage was Dave and I going to a Powerpoint presentation and if at the end of it we still felt he needed speech therapy they would book an assessment – if you can get them to agree to that then she should get help x
All 3 of my sons had help from a speach therapist, they came on in leaps and bounds, I have written on my experiences also
My middle little guy has had speech therapy now for two years thanks to a SENCO at his pre-school who spotted that it was unusual and not just the normal delay with a letter. He enjoys it though – and what makes us laugh is that it doesn’t bother him, and he’s been assessed as above national expectations for speech and language! Haha.
Well done little dude, what a wee star. I’m so glad it has gone well. Proud moment for your all xx