Speech therapy help

[motherofvikings]

Ds is 4yo and a great talker. :) but he is missing some sounds. We are waiting on a SLT appointment but they are massively understaffed here so who know when that'll happen.

Do anyone have any suggestions for the /s/ sound?
Ds has a frontal lisp ATM so yes becomes ye-th. I have done a lot of googling but am struggling to help him make the sound himself.

Any ideas! :)

[incywincyspideragain]

Ds (3, 4 in couple of months) has just started speech and language therapy and its actually 'just' phonics - ds's difficulty is disordered speech so he makes some funny substitutions and can say later sounds like 'ch' and 'j' but still does 'fronting' (car is tar) - anyway the phonics are helping with his listening skills as is clapping out syllables of words, we've been told not to correct him but getting him to look at our faces as we say each sound (we get 6 phonics to practise each week) has helped him ie he said 'n' as 'm' until we could show him that we put our tongue behind our teeth to make the sound, maybe work through the same including 's' in there?, ds is loving phonics because he starts school in September and he's heard his brothers doing phonics so feels like a big boy lots of phonics resources out there, we're doing jolly phonics and they used to sell games and cards in elc

[motherofvikings]

Thanks! :)

We saw someone 9 months ago who suggested those things. Tbh it didn't make a lot of differnce as ds can hear the sounds but can't physically produce them.

We have a SLT app for next month now though so till then it looks like its me and professor google! :)

[incywincyspideragain]

sorry - my suggestions weren't very helpful then

good luck with the appointment next month!

[motherofvikings]

No worries incy :)

I think the syllable clapping is fairly standard starter activity for SLT.

Good luck with your SLT journey! :)

[chukkabukka]

Ok, difficult to explain but I'll have a go. Lips slightly apart, teeth gently together, tongue behind teeth, and go sssssssssssssssss. Remember, there is no such sound as "ser". Now as you are making the delightful sssssssssssssssss sound, take one index finger going from the lip area forward, but in a wavy line. It can feel like the ssssssssssss sound is wavy too. Make it a game, use it for an easy name eg Ssssssssssam, or for the word sssssssssssilly. Each time emphasising the ssssssssssound always including the wavy line. When you are explaining the name of something use the sssssssss and the wavy line automatically. If ds uses this when he is trying to tell you ssssssssomething that's fine and repeat it back acknowledging you understand with perhaps some facial expression or say a nod of the head. Encourage all the family to use this technique and if ds picks it up eventually they will use it without the wavy line. Hope this helps. (I have other techniques for sounds so if you get stuck, just let me know and I'll try).

[motherofvikings]

That's great chukkabukka! I've been googling and found similar on homespeechhome. We started doing it the other day and doing a snake up our arms. He can now make a sssss and today used it on 'seven'!!! :-)
I goals preschool when I dropped him off and they'd noticed his improvement and that he was doing a snake up his arm too!

I'm going to try it with vowel sounds later.

[motherofvikings]

Success!

He managed to do ssss-vowel today! He looks like a ventriloquist when he does it but he's not lisping.

[armani]

I second what chukka says. Also when my dd had her salt for the pronunciation of the s sound she was given visual resources. She had a laminated card with a very bright yellow s on it in the shape of a snake. She then used this in accordance with the wavy s shape made with her finger when saying s, to reinforce the sound/ letter relationship. We also had a grey s on a laminated card that was blowing out lots of air. This was used when dd pronounced s as th, to reinforce the clarity needed to produce s.

Sorry of that sounds muddled, I hope you can make some sense from it!

[chukkabukka]

I'm pleased it helped. I made pictures of each sound (eg bumble bee for the zzzzz sound) and laminated them and cut them into "stepping stone" shapes. I placed them in a line going through lounge, dining room, kitchen and hall. Then I played a sort of musical chairs type game and when the music stopped ds and I would make the sound and use the gestures. If he did it well, he ran up to a box which I had covered in plain paper and painted on a picture of Postman Pan (very popular character as that time) with a yogurt pot for his nose. When ds pulled the nose a slit in the box made a flap which opened and he "posted" the stepping stone through the slit. He thought this was hilarious and better than just going through sound exercises. Also, the music I played was a tape my sister had given me and one of the songs was "now you know your ABC". He knew his alphabet when he needed it for his SATS and his teacher did not mind if he sang it. Didn't mean anything as he still cannot say the alphabet and what letter comes after this and before that but it did mean that he did not feel inferior to his peer group. By the way, I am useless at art but as long as he could roughly see what the picture was he didn't care.

[jellysmum77]

chukkabukka what a fab idea. My son also has a speech delay. He has just started school and we are keen to do whatever we can to help him so that he does not fall behind at school. He has a good vocabulary but is very difficult to understand. A lot of the endings of is words are missing and there are also sounds he substitutes e.g. - he says pime for time, pop for top etc. He struggles to make the correct shapes with his mouth, although he is improving with the exercises we are doing at home; a few weeks ago he was not able to get his tongue behind his teeth but can now do it. He has also this week gone from saying kark to park! .
He waited five months to get therapy and then we moved areas and he has had to wait four months again to be given a 5 week block after which he will have to go back on the waiting list, I am told this could be months again. So we have now made the decision to go for private therapy.
We use the bigmouth sounds app for the ipad which shows how to make the different shapes with the mouth and has a daily exercise routine which we all do together.
We also do lots of blowing bubbles, straw painting etc to help improve the muscle control in the mouth and tongue.
One that he really has trouble with is the l sound. Any ideas and advise would be gratefully accepted.

[HormonalHousewife]

My salt told me not to worry about
L just yet it's one of the later sounds to acquire, often around 7.

[jellysmum77]

I said this to his teacher yesterday and she just stared at me in disbelief when I explained that many of the sounds he is still struggling with are often not developed until between 5-7 years.