Riley bounced into our office one August day with her concerned parents. Picture an adorable preschooler with big blue eyes and brown curls, wearing a whimsical yellow sundress and matching sandals with a sparkly headband adorning her hair. Riley had great social skills. She took Tessa’s hand and went back to the therapy room with ease.
She sat down with Tessa and played with the farm. Before long, Tessa was able to engage Riley in conversation. She wanted “da titty tat and da tows in da bawn. Da doats and wittle wams wuh seeping out in da yawd, and da dod was bawting at dem.
Did you get that? Actually, we did! Because Riley was using patterns, we translated Riley’s speech to the following: “The kitty cat and the cows were in the barn. The goats and little lambs were sleeping out in the yard and the dog was barking at them”. We understood Riley about 70% of the time, because we knew the context of the conversation (our success would be about 50% without contextual cues).
Speech Problems cause Social Problems
But her parents and peers were baffled! There were times when they couldn’t understand a word! Riley is a very bright little girl. She wanted to be heard during circle time and on the playground. She was getting frustrated! And her parents were getting worried!
Phonological disorders are very common in toddlers and preschoolers and, without early intervention, show up in the primary grades too. Phonemes are the sounds that make up our words. So a phonological disorder pertains to a child’s production of sounds. One of the most common error patterns is producing ‘t’ for ‘k’ and ‘d’ for ‘g’, so “car” sounds like “tar” and “good” sounds like “dood”. Another common pattern is changing the ‘l’ and ‘r’ sounds to ‘w’, making “ring” sound like “wing” and “listen” sound like “wisten”. The third common error pattern is cluster reduction, where children will reduce consonant clusters that have 2 or 3 sounds; they typically delete the ‘r’ from ‘br’ and the ‘l’ from ‘bl’ clusters, changing “bread” to “bed” and “black” to “back”. In addition, they often delete one consonant from ‘s’ clusters, so “school” is “cool” or “star” is ‘sar’.
We assured Riley’s parents that we understand phonological disorders, and we know how to fix them. Riley was able to make a ‘k’ when Tessa tapped her finger on the front of Riley’s neck to show her that ‘k’ is made with the back of her tongue. Riley learned to say “cow”, “king” and “key” with perfect ‘k’ sounds. She was also reducing consonant clusters, so they worked on ‘sw’, ‘st’ and ‘sp’ as they played with the toy swing set, built a railroad track with stop signs and had a picnic with spoons.
Fast forward to 4 months of therapy later…. Having those two very important sound groups, the ‘k’ and ‘g’ group and the ‘s’ cluster group, Riley’s speech is now 90% clear to us and her parents. Her father proclaimed, “When Riley talks, I barely have to interpret anymore.”
Speech Problems cause Reading Problems
Not only is Riley’s speech clearer, but she is also in a better place for emergent literacy. Phonological disorders are problems with sounds, and sounds are linked to letters. Learning the sounds and related letters is one of the first skills children learn in kindergarten—it’s called “phonics”.
Kids with phonological disorders are telling us their sound systems are out of whack. So, these kids are at risk for dyslexia. Without intervention, these kids are almost certain to have problems with emergent reading.
Speech Therapy Doubles as Reading Intervention
The good news is that phonological disorders are so treatable! And treating them early, before kindergarten, is the best way to prepare children for school. Like Riley, bright kids who receive early speech therapy actually have an advantage as they prepare to read.
Riley comes into our office twice a week with a big smile on her face; she truly makes our day. It is a joy listening to her talk about her day and understanding almost everything she has to say! If you know a child like Riley who is having difficulty pronouncing sounds, call our office at 858.509.1131 for more information.
