Hi, I'm not sure if this is the right place to post. I've tried posting in childrens health and parenting issues but didn't get any replies, maybe someone here can help or direct me to the right place to post?
My 6 year old daughter is still speech delayed, she has come a long way over the last 4 years but there are still times where Daddy, Grandma, aunt, siblings, teachers, or sparks (girl guides) leaders have trouble understanding her. Strangers often ask me what she has said. She had speech therapy at the hospital from 3 years old until 5 1/2 years old,but once you enter school the hospital stops and you have to rely on the school. She has been on the priority waiting list since September and still hasn't been assessed by the school speech pathologist! Does anyone else have a child this old with this problem?

mommyof5

Hello, I just came across your post and being a speech and reading psychologist I was disturbed to hear that you have not been able to have your daughter evaluated yet. I hope she has been since you posted the message but what I would do and have suggested to others is to contact a researcher at the local university's psychology or communication sciences departments. For you, it may be the university of Montreal? Either way, being a Langauge and reading researcher I have found that often for a small fee or even perhaps for free university researchers will do evaluations--in this case for your daughter's speech deficit.
Just to warn you, they may ask you for permission to use your daughter's data for research purposes but the evaluation should not be contingent on participating in research. In these cases the data collected is anonymous but you can say "no" and they should still do the evaluation. If you would like I can provide you with some names of individuals at Universities local to you who you could contact. By the way, dont post your address just what universities are closest to you.-tom

GOOD NEWS! My daughter really was evaluated and will receive speech therapy through the school, unfortunatly it'll only be once every 2 weeks, but something is better than nothing!. The speech therapist will send home some exercises to do at home. She also would like my daughter to see an ENT to check her because she has a hoarse voice (always has) and I've been told before that most likely she has nodules on her voacl cords. She is also going to ask the school permission to allow her to have a water bottle with her at all times so she can drink a bit before speaking to help with the voice problem. I'll keep you updated if there is any more news. http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif

mommyof5

Do you know what your daughter's diagnosis was...what she's having trouble with in speech?

Was just wondering if you had her hearing tested too? My daughter had a simple hearing test, and that was fine. But her Speech Teacher did some research (long story) and suggested she get tested for CAPD, which is Central Auditory Processing Disorder (or Delay). It just means that she hears faster in one ear than the other. The school could not perform this testing because it has to be performed by an audiologist. Turns out she does have it. Good thing is that she just goes to Speech Therapy (through the local Children's Hospital Network), and it can be corrected. Insurance is covering it for 30 visits. Just a thought.

kippy6


My dd's problem is mostly articulation at the moment. She's never been given a "name" for her problem. She has gone through a lot to be able to speak. Here's a few examples of her words "tat" for "cat". "brama" for Grandma", "tootie" for "cookie", "tatie" for "katie", "prim" for "trim".
that's just a few, the "k" and "g" sounds she has never been able to get out! there are also others "th" but she can do that one if she concentrates really hard. Up until a year ago her vocabulary was very limited and she couldn't say words longer than 2 sylables (sp?). She will still use 3-4 word sentences but can carry on a conversation. I end up asking her a lot of questions to try and fill in the blanks and make sense of what she is talking about.

I am familiar with CAPD, my eldest dd - 12 and my eldest ds - 9 both have it. They can test for it at my childrens hospital starting at 5-6 but prefer to wait until the children are 7 1/2. I don't mind waiting as she is actually doing well in school (kindergarten) despite the speech problem. (The other 2 were having great difficulties). The other 2 also have ADHD and I suspect maybe she might have ADD (she's not hyper). My other dd - 7 also has ADHD but I'm pretty sure she doesn't have CAPD because her marks are VERY good (grade 1) and she learns things and retains the information very quickly and easily.

As far as hearing tests: yes, yes, yes. She's had so many ear infections and hearing test I've lost count. She had pe tubes put in when she was 2 1/2 but that only helped with the hearing and ear infections, not the speech. The tubes came out when she was 4 1/2 (1 1/2 years ago), they lasted a long time. She started getting ear infections again after they came out. Last fall/winter she had at least 6 ear infections and this fall/ winter she's had about 4-5. She'll be seeing another ENT in May to check whether or not they will put tubes back in (it's been recommended by her ped and local clinic and because she nodules on her vocal cords, especially because she still has the speech problems.) She is also scheduled to have another hearing test done sometime in April/may (they usually call a week in advance but I always ask the waiting time)

Gotta go the 3 year old ds is calling for me!

mommyof5

I'm so glad your daughter is getting speech therapy now. I wonder if you could request her getting it more often? My son has a mild speech problem w/pronouncing his R's correctly. He is in 2nd grade. He is in a public school and he was going to speech class once a week last year. This year they increased it to 2 times a week. They also give us assignments to do at home for his speech. He is finally starting to show improvement after 1 1/2 years.

One of my best friends has a 2-yr old child who may have Apraxia. They said he is really too young to diagnose with this right now. Fortunately, he has just started to say some words. He's only been saying sounds up until now. He said two words last week! He has been seeing a speech therapist too.

kippy6,

You are so lucky to receive help for him that often, my schoolboard has a tight budget plus there is a big problem here in Quebec. Being a mostly FRENCH province there are not that many ENGLISH speech pathologists. The one who is seeing my daughter came back from maternity leave in October. Maternity leave here is 12 months and the schoolboard could not find an English therapist last school year to replace her. I also found out recently that the speech pathologist who saw my daughter at the local hospital from the time she was 2 1/2 - 5 1/2 has left the local hospital. There is now only french therapists there now!

My 7 year old dd (grade 1) has trouble with her r's and they wouldn't even dream of seeing her! I also heard that children with CAPD should see speech pathologists to help them speak properly (form sentences properly, learn not to hesitate, etc). My eldest dd (almost 12) is the hesitater and my ds (9) forms some sentences weird (but I know what he's saying or asking). They don't receive help either.

The hospital assessed my ds (3) in April of last year, at that point (26 months) he had maybe 10 words. they said he had a mild delay and would re-assess him in 6 months. They don't usually see children for the actual therapy until they are about 3 and up. I knew why he was speech delayed - he had constant ear infection and fluid in his ears all the time so everything sounded muffled to him (that was the same story for children # 1, 2 + 4) so I pretty much did my own diagnoses on that one. His hearing test 1 year ago showed that there was fluid (not surprised!) and that he had hearing loss. They told me in a noisy atmosphere (daycare, my home with 5 kids, etc) that we would have to speak louder than normal to him. This obviously continued until the end of September 2002 when he had his pe tubes put in. But up until September he somehow managed just fine to speak okay. He has a huge vocabulary but you can't catch everything he says but he's doing great. This week his newest saying is " I proud Mommy I do well on omputer"(computer - he just started 4-5 nights ago). He is able to say THAT sentence that has 8 words, and the word "proud" which is odd for a 3 year old to say, and omputer which has 3 syllables(sp). He has "kiddy" conversations with you not just the "I wants" or taking about the present. About 3-4 months ago I would say "come here and sit Dante I want to talk to you" then I would start the topic (usually daycare). Now he comes to me and says "come sit Mommy I talk you", then we sit at the kitchen table and he rambles on - "today daycare Beverly(educator) make tree maple leaf. I colour tree green my colour (the 8 kids in the class have their own colour) Katie purple john yellow (now he's telling me the other kids colours, he'll go through all of them). Last week I taught him to spell his name out loud, it took him 3-4 days to learn. It makes me feel badly for when my others were his age and couldn't speak because I would have done this stuff with them to. He knows his alphabet(engish) and numbers(english & french) 1-9, to say them, to recognise them and to put them in order and to say "A for apple". "M for mouse and Mommy" "D for doggy and Dante" etc.

Anyway I really got off subject I think but I'm very proud of him and at awe at what he can do that perhaps the others might have been able to do at his age. The only 1 who spoke early was dd (7), she spoke clearly at 18 months and was into little sentences by 24 months, She never really had any problems with her ears, maybe 1-2 ear infections a year which is nothing in my family. I'll tell you the cutest thing though, by the time she was 3 she was able to understand my speech delayed dd (then 2) and translate for her. All though she only had a few words at the time as her vocabulary grew with time her articulation didn't improve at all but the older dd (only 13 months older) could always translate for her (at home , at daycare, at grandma's, to strangers in the store, etc).

Well I have to go it's 7:00 and it's time to get the kids ready for school. Sorry so long and thanks for listening http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif !

mommyof5

Wow, that is so interesting...just the differences betw. Canada and the US. I would have loved a 12 month maternity leave back when I was working!! I'm a stay at home mom now. Have they always had a 12 month maternity leave? Do they actually save someone's job that long?

I'm sorry you have had such a problem finding an English speech pathologist. And yes, if the CAPD is impacting the children's speech, they should be seen by a speech pathologist in your school. (BTW my DS has the prob. w/R's, and my DD has the CAPD.) But for my DD, the school system is not set up to do therapy for CAPD. If it were impacting her speech, they would help her, but since it's not, I have to go through a regular speech therapist outside of school...through our local children's hospital.

Does your school offer speech and language therapy, or just speech therapy? I originally had my daughter tested for a language problem b/c she also had trouble forming sentences properly. That is how they found out about her CAPD. But apparently, her overall language score is within normal limits, so she is not a candidate for speech therapy within the school. She did score very low on certain areas within that larger test though, which prompted the school's speech therapist to recommend CAPD testing at an audiologist's office. My DD also has problems comprehending class lectures, and sometimes oral directions. We'll see if this CAPD therapy through the children's hospital helps all that.

My friend's child is 30 months old and just learned to say his first 2 or 3 words. He's bright, as he shows imagination, and can follow instructions. He's also helpful around the house. He's never had an ear infection. You wouldn't happen to know anything like this that is happening to someone you know, would you?

That's so cool about your older daughter being able to translate for her younger sister with only a few months age difference between them both.

[This message has been edited by kippy6 (edited 03-25-2003).]

kippy6
Mat leave used to be only 9 months up until Dec. 2000 (I think?). And yes they are supposed to "keep" your job for you and hire someone as a temp for the 12 months. I don't know all that much about it since I've really never worked.


My 2 eldest speak "okay", they have both spoken in strange ways though. My ds (9) seems to have had a lot of trouble to form sentences, like a year for example ago I can remember him saying "look at those PERSONS over there" instead of "PEOPLE". My eldest dd (12) has a way of speaking and forming her sentences that don't make sense about 1/4 of the time (it used to be worse) and she hesitates as she is telling you something so you stand there saying "come on Amanda, get it out". I really only find it frustrating for me because with 5 kids in the house she can get interupted at any given second for any reason (I might have to break up an arguement or stop ds (3) from climbing something, or someone comes and interupts) and then when I get back to her she might forget what she was talking about anyway. I worry about my ds (6) the one we are originally talking about. Now that the other 2 have been diagnosed with CAPD (which I didn't even know existed before my ds was tested in Sept.2002) it kind of makes sense to me why they speak "weird", so I wonder if she has it? Her formation of sentences has always been "weird" and worrysome but cute. One certain time really sticks in my head, we went into a Tim Hortons just over a year ago (she was 5)and there was an Xmas tree with little timbits boxes hanging on it. (My dd is used to Dunkin donuts so she calls them munchkins instead of timbits). She looks up at my friend and I and says "Mommy, munchkins I found!" with such excitement and I thought what a strange way to say a sentence. Why didn't she say "mommy, look - munchkins" or "Mommy, I found munchkins".

"Does your school offer speech and language therapy, or just speech therapy?" Good question, I'm not sure, I never asked. Although I have requested for my ds (9) to be evaluated because of his CAPD (I spoke directly to the Speech therapist herself).

My local hospital does not offer any assistence to kids once they enter school, it then becomes the responsabiliy of the school/schoolboard.

About the 30 month old, I would have his hearing tested and a speech evaluation done. Does he grunt or anything to say what he wants,etc? I mean is he verbal at all? Does he use hand signals and body language to get his message across? my ds did that for quite some time . She would point at the closet and tap her head and I knew she wanted her hat, or she would point at the cupboard and then her mouth and I knew she wanted a cookie. She was very good at it, I might add.

My dd hardly translates anymore now that they are 6 + 7 but it was quite amazing to watch. Especially when they were both in daycare. They were in seperate classes (because they do classes by age) but after 4:00 they would team up the different kids as kids went home. That's when they were mainly together, if any of the educaters couldn't understand dd(6) they would just go get dd(7) and have dd(6) repeat what she said and dd(7) would tell them and then go back to whatever she was playing. There were times even Daddy and I would ask for a translation.

It's that time again - 7:00am, time to wake up the kids. http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif

mommyof5 http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/wave.gif

Oops - I forgot to mention that My friends 30 month old did have his hearing tested, and all is within normal limits. Yes he grunts when he wants something. It is soooooo exciting that he just learned his first 2 or 3 words recently. He also uses some hand signals. I don't think as many as your daughter though.

I wish the best for you and your family, and hope that all of the speech/language concerns get worked out to your contentment. I'll be checking back to this thread to see how things progress. Let me know http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif .

Hi All,

I didn't think I would ever find a conversation which even slightly illuminates our problem with my 4 year old (5 in two months)-- he speaks some sentences very clearly but and they can be 8 or 9 words long easily -- but when he gets into a longer narrative, a story, i just can't make sense of what he's saying (that happens with shorter communications but less often). he has strange sentence construction and sometimes gets frustrated and uses gestures -- do any of you, who seem to know so much about speech delays, have any thoughts -- i'm anxious beyond words trying to figure out what this means -- ps he was diagnosed with a mild speech delay at age 3, but they basically said it was probably because he was bilingual and would catch up, but he hasn't! could it be auditory?

This is interesting. My youngest dd will be 5 in February. She has an extensive vocabulary and speaks in very long sentences, but is difficult to understand. She has problems similar to one of the other poster's child - hard g and c sounds as well as th and v. The thing is, she can make all of these sounds. We practice making them. But it seems she has a harder time making them in words unless she really takes her time and is reminded of the correct way to say them. I wondered if maybe it was because we haven't, until recently, encouraged her to make the sounds correctly because we knew what she was saying. Also, she was slower to speak, but when she did it was in full sentences. So maybe her vocabulary developed more quickly than her ability to speak? Still, her siblings understand her best, but grandparents and others who aren't around her alot have a hard time understanding some of what she says.

We haven't had her evaluated. She has never had problems with her ears and seems to hear fine. We are a homeschooling family, so speech therapy through school isn't possible. We do have insurance coverage for speech, though. I was waiting until she was at least five since I have read kids can have speech problems up until seven and still be considered "normal" and also because we have noticed improvements in her speech over time. Plus, like I said, I know she can make all the sounds and with practice seems to be getting better. But I don't want to let it go too long if there is something wrong that needs to be taken care of.

It's great to be able to have a place to discuss this with others going through the same thing. Appreciate your thoughts.

Sidnee

Just read your entry, and found it interesting. I am also having alot of difficulty with my daughter. She is almost 5 years old. We have been in speech therapy since she was about 18months old. Funny, she can say her "k" and "g" sounds which are supposed to be the more difficult ones. She has no problem saying sounds from the back of her throat. She has never yet said a "d" or a "t" what is whak, daddy is gaggy, dog is gog, etc. I am finding it very frustrating because I don't know what to try next, she has not even come close to the sound. What child can't say daddy? Any suggestions?

Hello, I just came across this site. God must have sent me here because I have a 6 year old with the same problem. I haven't had him tested yet. His daycare centers and preschools all told me he needed to see someone about his speech. They all said they will refer me to someone, but never have. I also hear he will grow out of it. For an example, everything starts with L. He count his numbers like this, one, two, thee, lour, live, lix, leven, eight, nine, ten. When he talk around people they look at him like what's wrong with him. Or, they will ask how old is he? His cousins that's around his age would ask me Why do he talk like that? I don't know how to answer the question. I'm unemployed at this time and I don't have medical insurance. Is there something I can do? I already bought flash cards, teaching tapes, hooked on phonics. Will I ever be able to correct this myself? Plus, he doesn't listen long. I could read him a story book, and he would stop me right in the middle of the book. He loses interest fast.

mimi

I am sorry to hear your going through this with your son.

Has the school tested him or even mentioned an issue? I assume he is in Kindergarten? I know you said, daycare mentioned it.

The only have a few suggestions as I do not know about speech develpment and what is "normal". I did go through my own issues with a son and an LD so here goes:

I would start with checking in your area for a "county child advocacy" or "county advocacy", many times they are for the severly disabled, but they can give you advice, by telling you who to call next. I believe they do deal with speech issue, I am just not sure if it's only extreme cases.

Another place to call is early childhood development or even learning disablity testing centers.

I live in Minnesota and there is a place called the Pacer center, advocacy for the disabled.

What I did was call anyone that would listen to me with a caring heart ...... and then I would listen to their 2 cents about the situation. These places know the "whos, who" and the "whats, what" in your area. If that makes sense.

You could also call your sons ped. DR or his/her nurse, and ask if there is a recommendation. Again that's a phonecall. Not sure if this would be any assistance.

I found many places that listened to me and few gave me the "golden" advice. One dear soul, bless his heart, talked to me for over an hour, AND KNEW I was not brining my son to them from the very beginning! This was one of those national homework assistance centers. Anyway we talked over the phone, and went line by line on my sons LD testing scores done by the school. And agreed with me there was an issue, he is who gave me the advice to call the county child advocacy for more advice, and with thier advice my son qualified for services. Very long story made short.

BOTTOM LINE: I don't know anything about speech issues (whether or not your son has an issue), but if there is a problem, your child is entitled to the help he needs and I believe at the counties/schools expense. Hopefully one phone call is all you need.

Hope this helps. Keep the thread posted.

ET