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My son C is in Kindergarten. I received a call earlier this week about concern about him having speech problems. I had never really thought about it. I can understand him. When I sat and thought about it though I realized, yes, he does have speech issues. There are a lot of people who can not understand him. I asked him if his teacher always understands him. He said no. I asked him what happens then. He said he says it again :)
He is soo cute. I really don't mind letting them test him for speech issues and getting the help so that he can be understood easier. The papers came to fill out to let them test him.
It came with a huge thing about parents rights and rights when it comes to IEP's. (IEP=Individualized Education Program) and also all about IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). Talk about a lot to read.
At first I was like why all this stuff. C isn't disabled. He has educational issues but I was thinking why C? I was even thinking that when I started writing this. Then it hit me! Not being able to be understood by your teachers and peers is a big disability. Yes, he maybe able to walk. He may be able to hear. But many many people can't understand him. That is a major disability. Hopefully this disability will be able to be fixed (Most speech issues can be) and he will be able to go and make more friends (something that is hard to do when many people can't understand what you are saying) and do the things that he wants to do.
What do you think of when you hear disability? Have you or your child experienced speech problems?
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Comments (16)
I had speech problems, something with pronouncing R's in elementary. Lucky I'm not a native Espanol speaker, those double R's are something violent.
Our oldest son was born with a severe cleft pallet and his speech was a huge problem. When I got custody of him I put him into speech therapy right off the bat. You are right that it can be a huge detriment to basic developement if others cannot understand you. I'm glad you are tackling this early.
My little brother had to go to speech therapy classes in elementary school because he had a really bad speech impediment, caused by my talking for him and never letting him speak for himself. He stuttered and couldn't make the r sound. It didn't take long for him to become coherent.
I don't have speech issues, but I do have cerebral palsy and autism spectrum tendencies. Both are mild forms though. Sometimes they can get in the way, but that's fine with me.
I had speech issues when I was younger. When I'd pronounce something with the letter "S" it'd come out "th" i.e. "th"nake. I dunno, wasn't a big deal, just some classes and I was fine =)
My three year old has speech issues. He goes to a special preschool for kids with special needs. When they first mentioned it, like you, I thought he's not a special needs child. But, he is. Like you said, it's so frustrating for him to not be understood. He was involved with an early intervention program starting at two years of age, and has now moved on to a special needs pre-school. My pediatrician was the one that referred him to the early intervention, I thought he was just "slow to talk". I'm very thankful that he saw it when I didn't (or chose not to). It's alot more common of a problem than I thought it was. My son goes to the preschool four days a week(for approx two hours) and to individual speech therapy once a week. It's alot, but I'm hopeful we pull out of this soon. It seems to be getting better. Good Luck with your son! I'm sure it'll be easily corrected, especially since you understand everything he says. I don't always, and it frustrates my son SO much. It makes me feel terrible.
Again, Good luck and thanks for sharing!
I don't know...I understand it's a hindrance to him and he needs extra help with his speech...but to call it a "disability"?? Too many things that people struggle with get that label these days and I think it's rather silly. I mean, do you really want your child thinking that they are disabled? Why not just tell them it's something they have to work harder on than another child. After all, when a kid struggles in math, but not in English, we don't tell them they are mathematically disabled.
Hey!
Im currently in a concurrent education program and the title of this post caught my eye. In any case, co-operate with the school, and get everything done NOW, there is a HUGE backlog in the system (at least in Ontario) especially if he needs super formal testing (by that I mean more than in-school, provided your school is equipped to do so). Ask for everything, there are funds available but they're hard to get your hands on (thus the backlog) for example, IF your son needs more than just a speech therapist, we have technology now that can help him, worst case scenarios would be where he relied on a computer to get his point across, however in most cases it's just there as an aid, where he can choose to use it, for assessments.
Also, you can read the curriculum documents beforehand, and if you feel like any of the requirements would be too stressful for your son, you can ask for either accomodations or modifications. Both of which I am sure have been explained to you by the principal. In any case, make sure to communicate, and teach him to self-advocate. There is NOTHING more frustrating than knowing you could help a student, but you're not sure how, and they don't want to tell you.
I don't necessarily think of speech issues as a disability but legally I am THRILLED that they are classified that way and so should every other parent who has a child with a speech issue be. The IEP is there to give YOU, the parent, legal protection to ensure that your child is receiving the services necessary to give them the best possible educational outcome. Also if your child has a speech IEP and needs more extensive services later it is infinitely easier to add on to an pre-existing IEP, even if only for speech, than it is to start from scratch. We were able to fast track my son's IEP for a SLD in exactly this manner.
Like you I never realized my son had a speech problem (actually it was an articulation difficulty
) until his 2nd grade teacher asked if he had ever received speech services before. When he was 3 he had articulation issues and we had taken him for a speech evaluation where he was dxed with "low muscle tone" but not rxed speech therapy. We did do some OT at the time and some mouth strengthening exercises. His speech was SO much better by 7 that we didn't notice his articulation. Happily he only needed speech therapy for about a year and then he was done.
About "labeling"....it's only a label if you allow it to be and allow others to treat it that way. We never referred to my son as "disabled" nor did we discuss his learning differences as being a "disability". The long and the short of it is that it is a bunch of bureaucratic paperwork that is actually designed to work for your and your child's benefit. The "label" means EXTRA help for FREE! Don't get hung up on the semantics.
@bubbelcat - It is a label no matter what people say. Sadly, as a parent, you don't have any control over how other kids in the school will treat your kid... and how teachers will treat your child when you aren't there. I was a special ed teacher and I saw up front how the general ed teachers treated my kids - it wasn't pretty at all. There are some awesome teachers out there, but there are some not-so-awesome ones, too.
I'm SO glad it worked out fine for you, but for other moms, being able to get your kid into other services easily is NOT a good thing - it's a slippery slope.. For moms who don't understand the system and how to advocate for their kid, that kid can be tracked, put in low classes, and not get the quality education that they need. The system only works well for educated parents who know when to say "Enough is enough!" and push back against the system.
Hopefully things are changing!!! :)
I had/have a speech impairment. I call it an impairment because it was as such for me. I had a really hard time with c, sh, and r sounds. I had speech therpy all throughout elementary and very little inter jr. high. In my adult life, no one can tell that I had a speech impairment. But every once in a while, I still have a hard time prononnucing a word because it's accented or whatever on a sound that I've had a hard time with as a kid. I only have trouble with words if it's a bunch of sounds or a word I'm not comfortable with (because I don't use it in every day conversation.) And even then, no one notices, and I tend to even forget that I've had a speech impairment.
As far as being labeled and having a disability, I had the hardest time with accepting the term disability for ME. I was pretty much a "normal" student by the time I had my last IEP (which coinsided with my sophomore year of high school, and my IEP meetings were every three years). College was rough because I didn't use my accominations. (I could have had time and a half on tests, a note taker, etc.) I wanted to do college, do the work completely and utterly on my own. I struggled the frist few semesters. But by the time I hit my fourth semester, I had mainstreamed myself into the college workload, with two jobs!
There's a stereotypical disability-- Autism, mental retardation, etc. Those are the OBVIOUS disabilities that should be thought of when talking about this subject. But there are also others who wrongly get labeled as "retarded" or "stupid" just because they say they are in special ed or have a disability. I had an entire support system to help me over come that for myself, for me not to look at myself or others as such.
I've also worked with some children that have disabilities. They are still just as loving, just as passionate, just as loving, and in need of love as their mainstreamed and "normal" counterparts.
As an adult and teacher, I have learned that those with needs as well as those that are "normal" still have the same needs. They need support, love, someone to be on their side to be their friend, confident. Children just learn differently.
My 1 1/2 year old niece has a speech problem. It makes it difficult sometimes because I don't know what she wants. However, I make sure to spend a lot of time with her and to try to teacher her new words. I'm 19, and I want my niece to be able to live her life to the best of her abilities. :)
My little sister had a similar problem. For the first 3 yrs of her life, everything she heard sound like she was under water, so she developed a speech impediment. Because of this, she took individualized outside speech lessons for a few years. It was very helpful, and now she talks almost normal (just a little slower than most). She started school a yr later than most, and now she's in high school in special classes.
My daughter also had severe speech issues in kindergarten. Her family could understand her, but her teachers could not. She also received speech therapy from the school (and had an IEP), and has made a wonderful improvement. She went from not being understood at all, to now only have a slight issue with the "S" sound. She is being discharged from her speech class now (She is in first grade).
Last year, she was struggling in reading, and now she is two grade levels advanced in reading. I know that her reading problems were related to her speech problems.
@marzish@xanga - We must work for radically different types of school system because here the Superintendent works hard to push kids out of SPED, even kids who really need services. SPED is expensive and difficult to staff at full capacity, at least in my county. Also you will find crappy teachers who will marginalize kids for all manner of reasons, not just because they have special needs. You notice it more with SPED kids but a crappy teacher is a crappy teacher, whether they dislike your kid because they are in SPED or because they come to school in mismatched clothes.
I AGREE wholeheartedly about parents being advocates in fact that was my point. As I said your child is not beholden to a label unless YOU allow it. Parents need to educate themselves and advocate for their children. It is sad and shameful that so many parents can't be bothered to do so, even "educated" ones. I would LOVE to see every school have an ombudsman to act as a parental advocate for parents who are unwilling/unable to stick up for their child themselves.