Speaking of Speech

I love documenting things on this blog! The good times and vacations are my favorite to post because they are happy and easy, but I also feel led to post about more difficult things. Hopefully by posting about these things they can be informative to someone in the same boat. And I want to document my "real" life.


Krews is my firstborn and he is one of the most precious boys you will ever meet. I know I am his mama, but he truly does have the most amazing heart. Krews is always kind, always happy, and has a servants heart. Krews is smart and his language scores are high. He always does well following instructions at school and pays attention to every assignment. Don't ever challenge him to a game of memory because he will beat you every single time! Krews does have a weakness though...he has a speech articulation issue and that is what I wanted to share today.

When Krews was 3 I noticed he used Ts for Ks, Ds for Gs, etc. I thought I needed to give him time to grow out of it, but also wanted to be proactive and hit the issue head on if there was one. We had his speech tested and sure enough he had an articulation issue. We arranged for him to have private speech with a speech therapist 2 days a week after school (he went to preschool two mornings a week at this time.) I knew early intervention and repetition would be best. That year he wasn't making much progress and was not that interested in speech. He was also sick a lot that year, so during the second semester we decided to give him a break and retest in the fall.

When school started back and he was 4, we retested and he still needed speech, so we arranged for him to work with a private speech therapist twice a week at his school. We found this was the formula that worked best for him! It was nice for him to be in school mode when doing his speech and was also great that his therapist and teacher could work together. She never pulled him out of class during "fun" times and made speech a treat for him. He was also more mature and ready to learn!

In the middle of the year last year, Krews had his tonsils removed and tubes inserted in his ears. This really helped him a lot with his speech. I was hesitant to do the invasive surgery, but we took our time researching and listened to our pediatrician and ENT. This is not for all kids, but he sleeps better, eats better, and is much more healthy now. We continued thru the school year and met once a week for speech in the summer.

This year is his final year of Pre-K and we started speech using the same formula as last year during the first week of school. Krews is such a hard worker and tries so hard! We have really been working hard to be kindergarten ready. Our struggle right now is pre-reading skills like knowing all letters and sounds. We have decided to start doing speech 3x per week this semester to give him extra help.

To be honest, his speech therapist says he is right where he needs to be and most of these skills are kindergarten skills. We just want to keep our Krews confident and on track by being prepared. I never want him to sit in class and struggle or feel like he is not getting something. And trust me, I know there is a fine line between pushing your kids and letting it come naturally in time. I have NEVER pushed him, but we do spend a lot of time working with him. We do fun things like writing letters in shaving cream on the shower door and sounding them out or playing with chalk outside. These are ways to "work" without him even knowing it is work. Kyle and I both have apps on our phones that help him and he thinks it's a treat to be on our phones. The hardest part for me is being consistent in correcting him. For example, he calls Kole "Tole" or "Toley" and I correct him when he says it. He is fully capable of making each sound at this point, it is just getting it into everyday speech.

The hard part about his speech is worrying that people cannot understand him. I once heard a girl tell him, "She couldn't understand a word he was saying." She is a precious girl and wasn't trying to be mean, she just honestly couldn't understand him. Moments like that break my heart for my sweet boy. The only way I know to combat it is to help him to correct it and to make him confident.

We have been so lucky to have a wonderful support system. Krews attends the sweetest school and has had wonderful teachers and speech therapists! I cannot say enough about how wonderful each and every one of them has been to Krews. They are always positive and encouraging so that has made him positive and confident. They all communicate constantly with me and give me such a peace about all of this. His speech therapist has also said that if he still needs speech next year we will just jump right back into it in Kindergarten and it will be no big deal.

As for Krews, yes he has to overcome his speech issues, but it has also been such a character building experience. It has made him be a hard worker and is giving him the skills to be a great student at an early age. Those two qualities will be skills that help him all throughout his life. I am so proud of him!

If you are having a similar situation with one of your children, I would love to be of any assistance. My advice is to hit the problem head on and be proactive. Always be an encourager, while mainaining an atmosphere of hard work and dedication. And most of all let go of your worry about the situation and turn it over to God!