6 Year Old Dislikes Speech Therapy

[mommyabroad]

My 6-year-old has a speech articulation issue and has been going to a speech therapist for 6 months. She says he's improving but we see no carry over in his daily conversations with us or others.

He hates going and although we've avoided all incentives/rewards/etc., I wonder what we can do to make the experience more positive for him (and us).

Aside from articulation, he has no other delays or issues. Any ideas?

[annettemarie]

Moving to Special Needs

[Emmeline II]

Perhaps you should try a new therapist; it may be that he doesn't like her style or mesh with her personality.

[Aridel]

I agree with Emmeline that it may be a bad fit. Has he said why he doesn't like it? Sometimes kids are upset because they think they're missing something, like time outside, or a TV show etc. Sometimes the therapist ahs a personality that can be difficult, or the child can feel frustrated by having to work on something that is so hard for him. Have you talked to the SLP about how he feels about therapy? Does he show these feelings during sessions, or just prior to/following? Some kids don't want to go, but once they are there do OK. Is she willing to change anything to accommodate his needs?

I wouldn't be shocked at no carryover yet - articulation improves in stages, and first words and short phrases improve, then sentences and conversations. Has she given you homework to do with him? She should be providing you with a home program to help practice and generalize skills. She should also have identified goals for him, for the insurance company, stating what he will do, and in what time frame. You can ask how he is progressing on those specific goals, to get more information. Something like he went from never saying "s" to saying it 10% of the time but not in full words yet, only on its own or something like that.

If you need to take a break for the summer, don't feel bad about it. Kids can need breaks from therapy just like they need breaks from everything else sometimes!

[gsmom]

Are you able to watch what happens in a session? Sometimes, it's fairly obvious what the issue is (personality, too difficult of tasks, etc.). It may be time for a break with some home programming (activities to do at home). I would ask the therapist for some activities to do at home, anyway. As soon as one of my kiddos masters a sound in words, I send home pictures with that sound with the instructions to practice one time per day just saying the words. As the kiddo gets better, we change what they practice with those cards. Reading books that have lots of sounds that he's working on is a fun way to do some listening. Talking about the sounds to help him start to identify them ("that has your "s" sound in it). There are lots of things you can to at home to help with carryover.

I gained a lot of respect for what I am asking kids to do when we are even working on one sound when I went to a conference and the speaker told us to turn to our neighbor and produce every "k" sound with a "t" sound and "g" sound with a "d" sound. I couldn't do it. Like the PP said, learning new speech sounds is a process and it takes some kids a little bit longer to carry things over into conversation. I would ask the therapist what kind of changes she's seeing, perhaps he's just mastered them in words (some kids have a hard time even producing the sound on its own) or even in sentences. Perhaps she has some ideas that can help your DS like therapy better. I think it's worth a conversation. I encourage all my patient's families to have those kinds of conversations with me. I want therapy to be fun and exciting, so if it's not, I want to figure out how I can make it better.

[Kristine233]

I agree with the others that it could be something as simple as a bad fit. I'd watch a session if possible to see if there is something that you know your child may be having issues with.

We have gone through a few STs and 1 of them was a bad fit for our son. While he did progress, we didn't see much of it at home. He did what she wanted while he was there but didn't like the sessions enough to think about what he had learned or practiced elsewhere. It was a personality conflict. Once he started with the next ST he flourished, he adored her and it showed.

[mommyabroad]

Thanks so much for all of the helpful replies. I do think it could very well be a fit issue, although he says he likes the therapist, just not the work/practice. But I had the sense from the start that the therapist who did his evaluation was a better fit and I could have followed my intuition. I'm going to try and sit in on the next session and then re-evaluate. I think some adults just really click with DS -- and I don't think she is one of them.

[gsmom]

I hope you are able to get in with the therapist you feel may be a better fit. That's great that you have another person in mind. Good luck!