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Learning to speak clearly is a natural process for most children. Start by making sure your child is healthy. Long-standing congestion and chronic ear infections can create speech problems. Consider using USANA’s chewable multivitamin to give your child a strong immune system.
Return to topYes, speech therapy can help your keep your friends! He might have a phonological disorder. This means that his speech sound system is disordered because of auditory processing difficulties. The two most common causes are genetics and chronic upper respiratory illness. Treatment would be aimed at helping him hear speech sounds correctly and produce them successfully.
Return to topYour son’s language comprehension is probably much higher than his expressive language. A phonological disorder is usually seen in conjunction with an expressive language delay. The gap between want he wants to say and what he can say is huge. Sometimes kids will stay silent instead of risking more failure. Be gentle with him.
Return to topIt sounds like your daughter has a generalized motor impairment. Causes include genetics, prenatal complications or post-natal trauma. Treatment is aimed at teaching accurate positioning of the articulators, but improvement can be limited if therapy is not intensive. If you are willing to do daily practice at home, private therapy is a good investment in her future.
Return to topThe term apraxia implies that the brain is having trouble organizing muscle movements. It can occur as a result of a stroke. In children, apraxia frequently co-occurs with an autism spectrum disorder. Sometimes children with apraxia have sensory disturbances but do not end up with a diagnosis of autism. These children have lots of trouble with imitation, but might surprise you with their motor skills when they want something. Treatment starts with very easy motor movements paired with high motivation, so that the child learns to vocalize in order to get something. The child gradually progresses to the adult form of words. Many non-verbal children delight us by starting to talk when they are bombarded with the expectation to create messages using picture symbols or a voice output device.
Return to topIt is possible he has enlarged adenoids and he gets more hypo-nasal when his allergies are worse. Often medical treatment combined with speech therapy is needed to solve speech problems. Some examples of common physical problems that cause speech problems are abnormal dentition, enlarged adenoids and tonsils, a deviated septum, and a tight lingual frenulum.
Return to topHe is putting his articulators in an unusual position, which is resulting in an odd sound instead of the one we expect. Some examples are a frontal lisp, a lateral lisp and a missing R sound. When I worked in the school system, the majority of my referrals were for speech distortions that impacted spelling. These children are often bright, yet can't unlearn their habit on their own. I have created a home program for the R sound, called “R You Listening?” You can download it for free. Now I take a radical approach which saves children years of frustration. I teach all the speech sounds to preschoolers, even the more advanced speech sounds.
Return to topThe research suggests that stuttering has a genetic component, but environmental triggers also play a role. Let me explain this using the example of teenage acne. I inherited oily skin that is prone to acne. By taking good care of my skin as a teenager, I was able to keep my acne under control and I only have a few scars. In the same way, certain people are prone to stuttering, but they can keep it under control by learning fluency techniques. I provide an individual training program that teaches specific strategies. In addition, I have noticed that using Fast ForWord to strengthening auditory processing and language skills helps make my clients more fluent. I wouldn’t take the extreme position of saying that auditory processing deficits cause stuttering. It makes more sense to me that there is a genetic source which causes a host of problems related to language.