DD 3-1/2 Speech Issues

[umsami]

DD1, who is 3-1/2, is my third child.  I've noticed there's a definite difference in how well I can understand her versus her two brothers when they were this age.  She has trouble pronouncing "S" as well as a bunch of other letters.  Neither DH or I speak to her in baby talk.  Sometimes, I feel bad because I have to tell her that I simply can't understand her.  Her hearing has been checked--and is fine.

Our area does not have public Pre-K, so she's about 1-1/2 years away from any sort of intervention at school.  I'm hoping her speech will improve, but I've been saying that for awhile.  DH just says, "It's cute"... and thinks that perhaps our other kids were just unusually clear for their age. 

What would you do? Should I just wait... or would you as the local public school if the speech therapist can evaluate her?

[pbjmama]

So you said there is no public pre-k but there should still be some sort of early intervention. Doesn't have to be preschool (but sometimes it is) but she may qualify for speech therapy through the school district. If you call and ask, the department is probably called special services or special education, some areas is just called early intervention.

[youngspiritmom]

Yes, the above poster is right. She should be able to get early intervention from the public school district.

[amcal]

My DD also had speech issues at that age and we called the school district and they put us in touch with their early intervention program. I took her in and they did a thorough evaluation. She ended up not needing services but if she had, the school district would have provided them.

[karin95]

Trouble with "S" and other letters is pretty common. S is hard to master for a lot of kids - even up through age 8 or so. Check out this website and take their little quiz and see how it scores:

http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/speechandlanguage.html#mychild

You can also google around for language development milestones and check out what's within the range of normal. Not that you want to look to the internet to determine if she's having a problem, obviously, but you want to know what things to emphasize if you end up calling Early Intervention. Honestly, if you say she's having trouble pronouncing "S" at 3.5, they're not going to evaluate her. But there may be some other aspects of her speech that does warrant evaluating or treatment.

[LynnS6]

The "rule of thumb" for a 3 year old is that you should be able to understand 75% of what they say, and by 4, 100%. So, it's not unusual to not understand everything a 3 1/2 year old says. However, you should be understanding most things by now.

Early intervention for ages 3-5 is usually handled by your school district. You could have her assessed to see if there is an articulation issue.

[beebalmmama]

We had ds assessed at our school district when he was 4. Dh noticed the speech issues earlier than I did, probably because he was a k-3 teacher. None of his speech issues were "developmentally behind" enough to get services. But we did meet with a therapist who gave us some resources to work on at home. We did make a little head way, but he was re-evaluated when he entered kindergarten, som of those same issues were now developmentally behind or close to. Unfortunately he still wasn't "behind enough" to require services. I know school districts are constrained with what they can offer but this was frustrating....He actually gets 15 minutes a week with the SLP at school (probably because dh works there). He's making progress but dh and I are considering finding him private services before he falls completely behind. So far though money has been an issue for us to do this. 

"S" sound is definitely still developmentally appropriate not to have up to around six or older I think. 

Ds was missing G and C sounds and some blends PL, TR etc

We're trying to focus on slowing down his speech. He picks up a lot of the sounds in isolation when we "practice" but then drops them again in every day speech.

[umsami]

Thanks.  See, if I were to guess, strangers can only understand about 45-50% of what she says.  I do a little better...maybe 70%, DH, not as well.  I think I'll see if she can be assessed by the school district.

Thanks for all of your advice, Mamas.

[tabrizia]

Originally Posted by umsami 

Thanks.  See, if I were to guess, strangers can only understand about 45-50% of what she says.  I do a little better...maybe 70%, DH, not as well.  I think I'll see if she can be assessed by the school district.

Thanks for all of your advice, Mamas.

DS was just went through an assessment by the school district.  He was around 3 1/2 when we finally sent in the paperwork.  He does qualify for an IEP.  Even without a free preschool/pre-K system they should have a system for assessing children between 3 and 5.  DS will be going to the local elementary school once a week to work with a speech therapist starting in March to work on his articulation issues.  It was a very easy process to navigate here once we knew the right place to call.  He is almost 4 and at this point in time DH and I can understand about 90% of what he says, close family can understand around 80% and everyone else including his preschool class can understand between 50 and 60% of what he says, which is a moderate delay and qualified him easily for services.

[PatchChild]

With speech, assessments are quick and fun for kids. Even the therapy means playing games that target the sounds they need work on. Nothing stressful, so it couldn't hurt to go look into it with the schools. On the other side, if it's just S, I wouldn't stress at all. That's a late developing sound.

[K1329]

My ds was evaluated through early intervention and started speech therapy at 2. He's really doing well and loves going because they make it fun for the kids. Dd, 7, has some classmates that leave class and go to speech therapy throughout the day. I'm hoping that by getting therapy now for ds, he'll be done and won't need to leave school/class as he gets older and starts school. If you supect an issue, IMO, you should go ahead and get her evaluated.

[umsami]

Thanks everybody.  I'm going to try and get her evaluated.  It's a lot more than just "S"...that just comes to mind as it's the first letter in her name and one of her brother's names. :)