Speech Therapy Update

Matthew and Kayla have some speech sound development 'problems'.  Kayla definitely has a higher speech intelligibility than Matthew (ie. more of her speech is clearly understood when the topic is unknown by listeners who are unfamiliar with her), but still has some problem areas that need to be worked on.  These 'problems' definitely became more noticeable when Remy and Carly  moved here because they are younger and much more intelligible.  I was hoping we would be able to fix these problems on our own (without professional help) because speech therapy is expensive and our extended health benefits plan only covers a portion of the costs.  In May, I discovered that our local public health unit offers free speech therapy until the child is in school.  AWESOME!  The only problem, as with many free resources, is that there is a waiting list.  I filled out all of the forms and sent them off.

This past July, I received a phone call from the audiology division of the public health unit requesting that Matthew and Kayla come in for hearing tests, to rule out any hearing issues.  Kayla passed with flying colours, but only one of Matthew's ears was fine.  They wanted me to see my family doctor about Matthew's other ear, but he had a cold at the time of the test so I chalked up his lessened hearing because of the cold.  They said I could come back in September for a re-test instead, if I wanted.  We went back this past September and both ears passed.  (P.S. I caught Matthew's cold in July and it carried over into August...and remember how I mentioned I had lost my hearing in my one ear?  Pretty sure that's what had happened to Matthew, too).

At the beginning of October, I received a call from the speech therapy division and Matthew and Kayla were both scheduled for assessments for today.  Kayla was excited to have an appointment because it's always Matthew that has appointments and so it's always Matthew that gets prizes and stickers :).  Anyways, the speech therapist was awesome.  Most of Kayla's 'problems' will resolve themselves by the time she's seven or eight, but her two more concerning 'problems' are her "S blends" (words that start with 's', followed by a second consonant.  For example:  Skirt.  Kayla can't/doesn't say the second consonant sounds, so she says, "Sirt") and "Sh" words (ex. Shirt).  We are going to be practicing her S blends daily.  The speech therapist gave me a tip/activity on how to teach her to say both consonants, and when she does it, it totally works!  Now it's just a matter of making it second nature to say the words correctly.

Matthew has a few more issues than Kayla.  His most pressing issue is that he can't/doesn't say hard 'g' and 'k' sounds, both of which he should have mastered by the ages of 3.5-4.  Our first focus is the teaching him how to do the 'k' sound.  Because it's a more pressing issue, we'll go back for a 45-minute speech therapy appointment every two weeks.  And because we're there for Matthew, Kayla will come too to get a little more practice (otherwise she would only go monthly).

I'm really impressed with the speech therapist, and I hope Matthew and Kayla are as eager to practice the sounds with me as they are with her!