JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – I remember when my kids were young, they sounded so cute trying to say new words. When someone would ask my son how old he was, he would respond, “I’m free”. He would use “f” instead of “th” as he was learning how to say the word “three”.
It is very common for young children to develop lisps associated with words they are learning for the first time. While my son and other young children outgrow them, many do not, and need additional help correcting the speech disorder.
Katie Nelson was 5 years old when her teacher first approached her mom, Kelly, about Katie’s speech.
“I thought that Katie just had a cute little lisp, and she was going to grow out of it,” explained Kelly about her daughter.
“She was precious. Her ‘Rs’ they would sound more like ‘W’ and her ‘S’ and ‘T’ sounds as well,” she described. “Once we became aware and started paying attention we realized how often we would have to ask her to repeat a word or say something over again,” she said.
Nelson said that after more than two years of group speech therapy sessions offered through the Duval County Public Schools’ program, she was not seeing a noticeable difference in Katie’s speech disorder. Then, she found a speech therapist, Kristal Ray, with Coastal Pediatric Speech Therapy.
“With Katie, she just needed to understand what to do,” explained Ray about correcting Katie’s speech disorder.
Ray uses a large flexible mouth puppet that allows her to show her patients what they should be doing with their tongue when they are saying certain words.
She said once Katie could visualize where her tongue should be in her mouth when she repeats certain words, she was able to correct the disorder quickly.
Kristal said 40% of her patients have the same “gliding” disorder as Katie. “They say ‘willow’ for ‘yellow’ or ‘wed’ for ‘red’ and it is so adorable, but as they get older it can affect how they’re reading and writing,” she said.
After just two sessions, Kelly saw a remarkable change in her daughter’s speech. Three months later, she said you would never have known Katie had a speech disorder.
“She made three straight ‘As’ for her first real report card in 3rd grade and she has really, it has helped her self-confidence and it has helped her read better, pronounce better,” she added. “It’s dramatically improved the quality of her life.”
Warning signs of speech disorder in children:
- By 2 years old, you should be able to understand about 25-30% of their speech.
- By 3 years old, you should be able to understand 50% of their words.
- By 4 years old, a parent should be able to understand about 90%.
If not, Ray said parents should consider consulting with a therapist.
If not corrected early, Ray said a speech disorder can create problems for children who are learning to read and write since they sound out words and write what they hear.