Monday, March 11, 2013
schloppy shpeaking
Okay. So child #3 speaks a little strangely. He was in speech therapy for not speaking at all early on, then he needed help forming pretty much all his sounds, then he developed a stutter. All of those issues resolved nicely, except for a schloppy 's' which is still alive and well and with us. I should have dealt with it, but I kind of ran out of steam with the whole speech therapy thing (child #1 also had issues and so did I). Apart from the 's' he sounds like a kid who has been in speech therapy. His sounds are made precisely. He sounds formal when he speaks.
Anyway, it seems that he's getting teased because he speaks with an 'accent'. I'm trying to work out what's going on. Is it:
1. He's being standoffish (quite possible) and so the kids are just looking for something to pick on him about and his 's' is as good as anything.
2. They've noticed the ex-therapy thing.
3. They have noticed that he doesn't sound like a FNQ kid because he isn't one (yet). He forms his words properly, doesn't mumble and speaks with correct(ish) grammar.
Speechie friends - should we go see someone?
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Is that why people here in NZ think I'm from the UK? (they say I speak with a 'posh' accent, not a broad Aussie accent - a good friend who emigrated from the UK has labelled me the 'posh aussie'). I did have some speech therapy when I first started school so maybe I do sound more formal and precise as a result (I just thought it was a result of my mother nagging me about the 'proper' way to pronounce words - I remember 'picture' was a word I was frequently corrected on)
ReplyDeleteI have British people asking what part of Britain I'm from...and I didn't do speech therapy; I just had parents who were big believers in correct spelling, grammar and enunciation. I find it rather amusing (although it grates on my ears) that my mother pronounces 'shr' as 'sr', which works fine for 'Sri Lanka' but not for 'shrink' (shibboleth anyone?). Of course, like many others, she also says 'next jeer' instead of 'next year' which I find far more annoying.
DeleteI also got ribbed for my formal, precise way of speaking when I was at school. This came more from those who didn't like me because (a) I was much better at school work than they or (b) I was a 'goody two-shoes'. By the time of high school, all the kids I'd grown up with in primary were over it and just accepted that that's the way I talked but the ones from other schools had more issues when we were in Yr 8 / 9. They grew out of it as we went on. 20 years on and as adults, most with children of our own, we can all laugh at ourselves and our stupidity borne out of insecurities.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm not a speechie, but hey, why let that stop me? Will an OT's opinion do?
ReplyDeleteHow long is it since you last took him to the speechies? If it's been a while, a review probably wouldn't hurt. But my other question would be does he see it as something he wants to fix up so he can fit in better, or whatever it is that he wants to do? At his age (and I'm guessing here, is he 9 or around that?) he needs to be motivated to put in the effort with changing it as well.
Sorry to hear he's getting teased about it though. It makes me sad to hear about other kids teasing or excluding someone because they're a bit different or just because they're new. I think my guys get a bit of that kind of thing sometime, just because I think they can be a bit weird with their interests and the conversation topics which flow from them.
Hope things get better for him soon.
I am/was a Speechie but adults are more my area - still, I'll have a crack. Is there some way you can nut out what it is the other kids are meaning? And if it *is* his clearer enunciation, is that something you/he would be willing to change? If the answer to both questions is "yes" then he might be able to change by himself - I've heard a number of stories of kids deliberately adapting their speech to fit in to a new context.
ReplyDeleteIf it's his "s" that's 'causing' the problem and if he's older than 7ish, I'd agree with Karen's comment - this is already habitual so he has to be motivated to change, or you have to motivate him. Then again, the longer he continues to speak like this, the harder it will be to change. Is this going to be a problem for him as an adult or is it the sort of thing that parents are aware of but no-one else really notices?
Hope something there helps though it's hardly specialist knowledge!