{"id":7851,"date":"2014-05-08T16:19:46","date_gmt":"2014-05-08T16:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/?p=7851"},"modified":"2018-05-15T12:34:45","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T19:34:45","slug":"will-my-child-outgrow-a-speech-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/speech-therapist\/will-my-child-outgrow-a-speech-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Will My Child Outgrow His Speech Challenge?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gordy

Gordy Rogers, M.S. CCC-SLP, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Speech Buddies.<\/p><\/div>\n

This week’s post comes to us from our own Gordy Rogers, M.S. CCC-SLP,\u00a0co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Speech Buddies, Inc., the makers of\u00a0Speech Buddies Tools<\/a>, as well as the owner of\u00a0Brooklyn Speech Solutions, PLLC, a private practice in Brooklyn, New York.<\/p>\n

Will my child outgrow his speech challenge? This question not only nags at all parents who are faced with addressing a child\u2019s speech challenge, but is one that speech-language pathologists (SLPs) must seriously consider before beginning treatment.\u00a0 This post aims to shed some light on this often murky question and to arm parents with better information so that they may be more informed partners in the treatment decision-making process.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Three Factors Determine if a Speech Challenge Can Be Outgrown<\/h2>\n

The three most important factors, in general order of importance, for determining whether a speech challenge is likely or unlikely to spontaneously correct are the\u00a0age of the child,\u00a0severity of the child\u2019s speech challenge, and\u00a0a child\u2019s and\/or his family history of a speech challenge.\u00a0The SLP must carefully weigh each factor, often in conjunction with a speech screening or full evaluation, to come up with a more definitive decision on whether to proceed with therapy.<\/p>\n

How old is your child?<\/h3>\n

Speech is the most complex thing we humans do on a daily basis, from a motoric, movement-based standpoint.\u00a0 Therefore, it shouldn\u2019t be surprising that it can take time for the average child to develop accurate, fluent speech.\u00a0 Perhaps the first question I ask of a parent who contacts me is: \u201chow old is your child?\u201d In reality, certain misarticulations are, in fact, normal.\u00a0 For example, it is normal for a three-year old to say \u201cwock\u201d for \u201crock\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Should that child continue to substitute \/w\/ for \/r\/ at age seven, that would almost certainly be something that should be clinically addressed. \u00a0But, this question of age of the child represents a bit of a balancing act.\u00a0 Research continues to reveal that intervening early is absolutely key.\u00a0 Yet we wouldn\u2019t want to intervene in a case where the child would spontaneously correct his errors (i.e. \u201cgrow out of it\u201d).\u00a0 If there\u2019s any doubt regarding this question of age with a particular speech error, the next thing I do is look at the child\u2019s overall level of speech intelligibility and how many different speech sounds he is having trouble with.<\/p>\n

How severe is the speech challenge?<\/h3>\n

Let\u2019s assume a misarticulated \/r\/ is the only sound a child who comes to see me in my practice is having difficulty with.\u00a0 This would very likely represent a mild articulation disorder.\u00a0 Typically, I will adopt a \u201cwait and see\u201d approach if that child is still in kindergarten or below.\u00a0 However, with every six month period that doesn\u2019t see self correction, I will be all the more likely to recommend treatment.\u00a0 If that same kindergartner has difficulty with \/s\/, \/sh\/, in addition to \/r\/, I would be much more likely to recommend that we begin treatment as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

What is the family history of speech challenges?<\/h3>\n

The next consideration that certainly goes hand in hand with the severity of a child\u2019s misarticulations is whether that child has had a history of speech errors and\/or speech therapy or if speech errors run in that child\u2019s family.\u00a0 If a child was seen by an SLP at age three to treat, for example, misarticulated \/k, g, v, f\/, then it is considerably more likely that a misarticulated \/s\/ or \/r\/ at age five will also require treatment.\u00a0 In these cases, especially with \/s\/, I will sometimes bump down my age threshold for treatment to 4 years.\u00a0 Also, there is a strong genetic connection in speech challenges.\u00a0 If an older sibling or parent had therapy, I tend to address a child\u2019s speech challenges a little earlier than I would when no family history of speech challenges is present.<\/p>\n

A full speech evaluation by a licensed SLP is the most definitive answer to whether a child may outgrow his speech challenge.\u00a0 However, many parents may not need to go to those lengths to get a better sense of where their child\u2019s speech stands.\u00a0 Age, severity and child\/family history of speech challenges are all highly significant factors in determining whether to intervene at a given juncture and I hope this information has empowered you to help make better decisions in your child\u2019s development journey.<\/p>\n \n \n \n \"Parent's<\/a>\n <\/span>\n <\/span>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week’s post comes to us from our own Gordy Rogers, M.S. CCC-SLP,\u00a0co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Speech Buddies, Inc., the makers of\u00a0Speech Buddies Tools, as well as the owner of\u00a0Brooklyn Speech Solutions, PLLC, a private practice in Brooklyn, New York. Will my child outgrow his speech challenge? This question not only nags at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[930,29,1329,128,1642,350,20,1359,6,149,135],"class_list":["post-7851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-speech-therapist","tag-articulation-therapy","tag-language-development-1","tag-parents-corner-2","tag-speech-and-language-development","tag-speech-challenge","tag-speech-delays","tag-speech-disorders-1","tag-speech-impediment","tag-speech-therapist-2","tag-speech-therapy-activities","tag-speech-therapy-for-young-children"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Girl_listening.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7851"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11484,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7851\/revisions\/11484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}