My 3 year old son has speech problems - he misses whole sounds out of words. He has been to see the speech and language therapist and is working on practising a range of sounds in a fun way and doing the MR Tongue/Freddy
tongue exercise stories. He is on an individual education plan where he does this for 10 minutes a day, and also the staff use makaton sign language with him. His IEP contains targets such as practising sounds, concentrating on activities and using signs.
He has friends but I imagine that it is pretty hard for them to understand what he is saying at times which must be frustrating for both parties. A lot of the time, my son just communicates with gestures and pointing. His speech problems effect him emotionally and socially as he finds it hard to communicate properly and this results in frustration often leading to challenging behaviour. Cognitively he comes across as being behind his peers, but he is actually not - some people assume he has cognitive difficulties when he is actually bright - which is also frustrating for both him and me!
Other children may have other communication difficulties such as stutters or stammers, or have English as a Second Language. They may be shy, have hearing difficulties, or be selective mutes eg choose not to talk. There may be other learning difficulties eg poor short term memory - all of which will affect children's speech, language and communication.
Does this help? :idea:
097 support children with speech and language communication needs
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cypop15 4.2 explain how social, emotional and cognitive needs affect children speech, language and communication
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