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If you were to ask my four-year-old son who his friends are in preschool he'd tell you, "Woo-Woo, While-wee, Tarter and Helwhen." Run this through the parental translation device and that's Lulu, Riley, Carter and Helen. Can't anyone name their kid Bob and Mary anymore? Okay, the problem isn't with the names - and to be completely honest, there are times I find my boy's "toddler speak" pretty darling. This is my last child and any lingering evidence that he's still my baby warms my heart a bit. But only a bit. It was at age four that I started exhibiting my own speech issues. It started with mispronunciations, led to teasing and then progressed into stuttering. So I'm trying to act very cool, casual and unconcerned when I ask my pediatrician, "When do a child's lingual quirks move from endearing to problematic?" Dr. Hobbs gave me a helpful flyer titled "Typical Speech Sound Acquisition." And this simple graph clued me into the concept that not all sounds are created equal or equally easy to create. While most vowels and a handful of consonants such as p, m, w, b and n (as in NO!) are usually mastered in a child's second year, there are sounds that a kid may not get a full handle on until age seven or beyond. These include l, r, s and that tricky v. So according to this sheet anyway, when Milo says, "Can we take the mini-ban to the bideo store," it's perfectly age-appropriate. Dr. Diane Paul, Director of Clinical Issues in Speech-Language Pathology for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) explained it to me this way, "It takes more coordination to pull back your tongue to produce an r or lift your tongue up to create an l sound then to blow a simple 'bah' for a b." Some children are just not physically or developmentally ready for the oral acrobatics needed to crank out that perfect s or th sound. Another consideration is where that particular sound falls within a word. "It is typical for kids to omit a consonant sound within a word," explained Paul. So when Milo comes into our bedroom at o'dark thirty and announces, "It's meà Mi-whoa" - that's fine, too. (Well, maybe not completely fine.) While I had Dr. Paul on the line, I asked her about stuttering. I haven't seen any evidence that Milo has inherited this trait from me, but how often do you have a doctorate in speech-language pathology on the telephone? She told me that stuttering is not uncommon and it's often a matter of children thinking way faster than their mouths and motor control can keep up with. "In about 80 percent of the cases, it will resolve on its own," she assured. The problem is you don't know if your child is a member of the majority whose stutter will be spontaneously cured or the remaining 20 percent who requires professional intervention. "Parents should trust their judgment because they know their child the best," says Paul. "And if they choose to visit a speech language pathologist and learn that nothing is wrong then that's good news all around." When I asked Dr. Paul, "when should a parent ask their pediatrician for a referral to a speech specialist?" she surprised me. You don't actually need a referral for speech language pathologist; they're autonomous professionals whom you can call directly. "But you can always go to your public school and request an evaluation as part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)," says Paul. (In Hennepin County early childhood screenings are available free through the 612-348-TOTS program.) Another point I needed to get straight is the difference between speech and language. Speech is the production of sounds that make up words and include skills like articulation and fluency. Language problems involve the way words are put together to communicate ideas and may include problems with understanding. Even if a child is having some speech issues, if he has good language comprehension and understands what's going on around him, it can rule out lots of potential problems. "What produces a lot of anxiety in parents is that anytime you Google 'speech delay,' the first five thousand links are about autism," says Hobbs. "It completely freaks parents out." Luckily, I'm far less freaked out about Milo's small speech imperfections these days and am now even free to enjoy them knowing that they're ephemeral. As Milo says, "I'm o-tay, Momma," and this time he's absolutely right. More information on speech and language issues and assessment is available at:
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Dr.Mom