Speech issues with 4 year old

-Toppy-

I have a 4 year old son (just turned 4) who has speech difficulties.
Now he has no problems understanding language, and is in speech therapy who think he is making progress.

I find his big problem is trying to string words together, for example I know he can say Daddy, juice and please. However trying to get him to put them in a sentence is impossible. I have repeated the words individually and then put them together, but when I ask him to repeat after saying the 3 words together he will just say juice, or please but not even the two together.

The other thing that bugs me is that there is times that would put on an accent that sounds like an old man with a wavering voice. At least if I could get him rid of the put on accent then at least he would sound like he is speaking clearly.

Any tips/thoughts?

Toppy

Billiejo

Better to heed what the Speech Therapist advises than others anicdotal opinions.

silja

What does the speech therapist think about the issues you mention?
What happens if you force the issue (ie don't give him juice unless he puts at least two words together)? Our boy does not talk much at all- but he is only 2 years 4 months. The doctor said that as he can be forced/ bribed to talk, he may just be quiet (especially as his sister is a chatterbox).
Does the boy have any other developmental delays? For example, he cannot put three words together but can he do a three stage command (go over there, pick up that toy, then bring it to me)?
On the accent, is there maybe a family member or someone on TV that he likes or finds funny and is trying to imitate?

cynder

My fella (3 1/2) has a few (lots) of speech issues, he can say about 6 sentences but he uses some echolalia (he repeats sentences his brother says but not sentences we say).

he is being assessed for an asd and adhd ( he got assessed to say he needs further assessment)....

I did the Hanen course More Than Words - it gave you tips how to teach your child to talk. To be honest i found the speech therapy didn't help him, he picks up more from home ( he is a year delayed). He had poor comprehension but now that has improved.

Repetition and giving the child a need to communicate works the best.

it took my son 14 months before he said the word 'bubble' that was a load of repetition, also my fella drags me to what he needs, so i have to hold back until he makes he is verbal he might say 'help' or 'tea' or some sort of grunt or he might start pointing to his mouth ( meaning he wants something to eat). i then prompt him and ask him questions on what he want and he will say 'yes' to the one he wants.

its very slow progress but at least its progress. He is starting pre school in September and has been awarded a Special Needs Assistant for 2 days a week to help him with his communication difficulties and behavioural difficulties.

mmalaka

I agree with the above post with the Repetition & need things.
I was in the same boat as the OP....it is a very slow progress and it can affect other things like the social behavioural of the child...
good luck

-Toppy-

Yeah he sounds very similar, to your son Grindelwald

We get alot of grunts and gesturing, and he does some of the lamh stuff (point to mouth for thirsty and rubbing belly for hungry.) He can be very good for single words, he comes up with some stuff out of the blue like helicopter, and playground were two recently - its just the joining up together of the words.

The gas thing he seems to great technically - (complete master at the iphone!)

He is starting his assessment of need next week as well so hopefully something will come out of that.

I presume that your SNA stemed from the result of the Assessment of need?

Thanks
Toppy

Deliverance

As a thought have you considered musical influences? Music is the oldest form of communication as it provides a rythm which is easily learned.

'Twinkle Twinkle little star' combined with the actions is very repetitive and combines repetitave music with words and actions. Kids love repetition, To me for my little one it provided constructs of words which l feel that my child learned into sentences covertly via the simple catchy music. This is also why it is used to teach the alphabet I think.

Just a thought and possibly something worth looking into as a therapy. Purely my opinion of course I am only an expert by being a parent and not a speech therapist.

cynder

-Toppy- wrote: »

Yeah he sounds very similar, to your son Grindelwald

We get alot of grunts and gesturing, and he does some of the lamh stuff (point to mouth for thirsty and rubbing belly for hungry.) He can be very good for single words, he comes up with some stuff out of the blue like helicopter, and playground were two recently - its just the joining up together of the words.

The gas thing he seems to great technically - (complete master at the iphone!)

He is starting his assessment of need next week as well so hopefully something will come out of that.

I presume that your SNA stemed from the result of the Assessment of need?



Thanks
Toppy

Hi again,

My fella had his assessment of need about 15 months ago, the assessment said he needed help with speech and behavior - he would need the services of

Speech therapist
Psychologist - wait listed
Early intervention educator 1 to 1
Early intervention playgroup
He has an occupational therapy assessment that came back fine
His assessment of need also said he needed more assessment so is wait listed for an asd assessment and there is a question mark over adhd but they wont diagnose that until he is at school.

Speech therapy began straight away after the assessment of need was done, he threw a lot of tantrums for the first 6 months, he is getting used to it now but doest talk much in the sessions, he gets on way better when its 1 to 1.

oh yeah and he can say 'dinosaur' and he came up with that one himself, he said daddy for the first time when he was 3 and 1 month.


It was the early intervention educator that put in for the hours for the special needs assistant as he has very poor communication skills and cant join in with group activities which results in either violence or/and tantrums and is very easily distracted by other things. (he has no interest in group activities)

He is well able to use the computer and Nintendo ds now - took him a while, his brother was 2 and could work both.


Best of luck toppy ( he sounds like a very cute lad:))

If you ever want to pm me do.


Just to say some kids love the musical influences but my fella hates music and singing and rhymes the tantrums he throws are whoppers. The early intervention team are trying to work with him in that area because when he starts pre school they do a lot of singing and group activities.... when i did the hanan course 'just for words' singing and ryming played a big part, but not a hope my guy would do it.

LegacyUser

Hello, reading all your posts drags me back to the similar questions and emotions we went through and asked over the last 12 months. I am not saying for a second that the diagnosis we got for our son is the same as any of your children but what i would ask is that you do all in your power to get a professional to look your child and give their opinion.
My son who will be 4 in November was diagnosed as having an Autistic Spectrum Disorder. Whilst deep down we probably knew there was something not right, being told was absolutely devastating. But it allowed us understand him and his personality and what makes him happy and what makes his behavior difficult. We started again from scratch , we developed a new relationship with him (not very easy to do) but he seems to be in a far far better place now.
Initially he seemed like any other baby and as he has 2 older brothers him being quiet was a god send as it made looking after 3 young children much easier. But the speech never came, just babbling nothing with structure. He never really played with any toys they were always around him but he never got caught up with them. At the time we never took a lot of notice of it but in the process of having him assesed it stuck out as we talked about it.
He was unbelievable for climbing and escaping through whatever opening he could find. he seemed to get upset at very little. Through our journey we discovered that as he was under 5 years old legislation that stated he must be seen by a multi disciplined team under the control of the HSE.

Get professional advice as it puts you at ease if nothing is wrong and if something needs more intervention then you give your child a major advantage starting it so early. we have come out of the fog we were in and our son is progressing nicely he is doing his best which is very good. He is a lot more verbal now, we understand when he gets upset, he is going to the toilet on his own ( has accidents like all males do young and old!!) and much more. He is an electronic games nut like his brothers and is particular clever in getting things he likes and avoiding things he dislikes but then these are typical of children with an ASD.

He is finishing montessori soon and going to a special pre school in september and hopefully a main stream school after that. Some children show signs of certain aspects of a spectrum disorder but not enough to be deemed as having an ASD so with early intervention all aspects of development can be improved.