what to say to ds about speech therapy?

[boysnberry]

I'm looking into having my 7 year old ds screen for speech disfluency. He is difficult to understand at times. His words are not clear and he talks too fast for people to understand him. He did have a true stutter when he was about 4 - 5 but he outgrew that without speech therapy.

It's heartbreaking when he is trying to make friends and the kids don't understand him.

He isn't aware of his disfluency. I'm not sure how to tell him that I'm going to have him screen without making it sound like there is something wrong with him or bring negative attention to his speech.

Any ideas would be great!

[LynnS6]

The truth. I bet your son HAS noticed that people sometimes have trouble understanding him.

"We're going to see Ms./Mr. X. They're a teacher who helps kids with talking. You know how sometimes we have a hard time figuring out what you're saying when you talk fast? Well, Ms./Mr. X is going to check to see if that's something we need extra help with or not. If it is, then we'll work with them to help you be able to get your point across a little better."

That's more or less what I told ds when he went for occupational therapy. I described the things that he had trouble doing or that bothered him, and described the therapist as a teacher who works with kids to teach them things that they need help on.

[s_kristina]

My dd was in speech from the time she was in VPK at 5 years old. She knew then that the other kids in her classes had a hard time understanding her. At times the other kids would run off and play with other kids leaving her with just one or 2 other children as they could not understand her. My dd knew then at 5 that her speech was an issue in making friends, but didn't understand why. She just knew she got to go play games with Mr. Lastname. She was also far from the only person in her class to be in speech. Her best friend in kindergarten started speech several weeks in after a teacher talked with his mom and they agreed an evaluation was in order. It was simply explained to him that he was going to go see the same teacher other kids in the class saw to help with some sounds he had trouble with.

[BethSLP]

I'm an SLP in the schools.

when you say speech disfluency and his words are not clear, can you give an example? the reason I ask is that it sounds to me more like you are talking about an articulation disorder (speech sounds not being clear/correct).

also, if he stuttered between 4-5 and it resolved without speech therapy, it was probably just normal disfluency. a lot of kids go through this at at that age. of course, I can't say that for certain, but just wanted you to know that its highly possible this was a normal developmental stage for your DS.

are you getting the screening through the school system?

if its through the schools, my recommendation would be to be sure you talk to his teacher and make sure she is seeing the same thing and get on the same page. if this is something that only seems to happen in conversation, you need to make that clear to the SLP as well. I say this because there are times when a kiddo is absolutely unintelligible in conversation or the classroom setting, but can do the single words on my eval just peachy. Of course, the SLP *should* be observing other settings, and looking at connected speech. but sometimes they might miss this if the child is mostly quiet in their session or (as many kids do) speaks extra clearly because they know they are at the "speech lady."

I agree with what the PPs said. Your son has probably noticed. If he hasn't, he will in the future. So many people worry about the stigma of speech therapy but the truth is that kids love to come. Most of the kids in the class that I don't take out for speech are jealous and ask when they get to come to speech Its really not something people are embarrassed of (unless perhaps they are in middle school and above, but even THEN most of my kids love to come to speech. surprised me, but its true).

I'd just be nonchalant about it and say that sometimes when he talks fast, it can be hard for others to understand and this speech teacher might have some "tricks" for us. Kids seem to like the idea they are going to learn "tricks."

HTH.

XOXO
B

[boysnberry]

Thanks everyone, for the replies.

DS is homeschool and we're looking to see if our health insurance will cover a speech screening.

I've been researching speech disfluency and articulation seems to fit best. It's difficult to give an example. His speech is mumbled. He talks fast and all his words seem to run on top of each other. His speech is more difficult to understand when he is excited or trying to explain something.

Also, when he reads he repeats word endings, for example, boat. He'll repeat oat, oat, oat a few times before moving on to the next word.

I think he is aware of his disfluency at some level but not enough that it affects his self esteem at least not yet. He doesn't mind repeating himself until he is understood. Our goal is to help him have clearer speech so others will understand him, especially kids. Some kids just walk away and he doesn't understand that it's related to his speech.

[Rose-Roget]

You're probably aware, but even if he is homeschooled, he is eligible to be evaluated and/or treated in the schools for free. Sometimes, insurance will cover it, but not necessarily very much.