Luke's Evaluation

I took Luke in today for his speech evaluation. He has a slight articulation delay, meaning he has a lisp. He says 'yes' as 'yeth', and other substitutions or deletions of sounds. It is not as noticeable when he says one word at a time, but when he strings a slew of words together to make a sentence, then it is hard to understand him. I can understand most of what he is saying, but that does not count in the world of speech development. I will not be there to translate for him every step along the way. Therefore, we went to see exactly where he was at in his development and how we could intervene now to clear up his speech before it becomes an issue.

Luke did so good with the speech therapist! He did not want to make the funny faces at first, but after naming off 30 pictures, he was all warmed up to her. He knew what most of the objects were, and if he did not, he would turn around and look at me for the answer. This was more of a test to see how he says things versus if he knows what the objects are.

The therapist showed me his evaluation and how well he did. A lot of the sounds I was worried about are not supposed to be developed until he is 5 or 6 or 7. His main problem is his tongue. Basically, he does not know what to do with it. If in doubt, he pushes his tougue out to his teeth or even past his teeth, resulting in the 'th' sound. She said eventually (with as much as he does it) he will end up pushing his teeth out. YIKES! The good news is that he only needs 4-6 weeks of speech therapy and the problem should be resolved. As long as he is not still staying, "Yeth!" when he's a teenager, that'll be GREAT!*Trying to make the funny faces that Ms. Patricia wanted him to make*