Helping Your Child Work through Speech Frustration

For Spring Break, my sister came to visit us. My children where so excited to see their Auntie (since it had been over a year since her last visit). As soon as they saw her, they immediately greeted her, and started talking to her. I was super excited that both of my children did well with this and didn’t need a warm-up time.

It didn’t take long however, before my son got frustrated when communicating with my sister. She only understood him 40% of the time and kept asking him to repeat himself. If she still couldn’t make out what he was saying, she would ask me. He didn’t like this at all. He is a "big boy" and wants to talk for himself. When he got frustrated, he would make a grunting sound or just give –up and shut down. It is hard watching your child feel this way.

Upon seeing how his frustration affected him, I decided to contact his Speech Pathologist to see if she could give me any tips to help him be able to communicate better with my sister. Our amazing SLP got back with me quickly on a weekend! She really is incredible. Here are some things she told me:

1.      Have him slow down- talk to him about talking slower. Have him think about clapping or patting his lap each word so the words do not run together

2.      Demonstrate-  repeat what he is saying to him exactly how he is saying it, so he can hear it and fix it himself

3.      Take a break and think of another word- have him give a synonym for what he is saying. The new word might be clearer than what he was trying to say before

4.      Have him use gestures- Allow him to point or show you, so the person can gather context clues to try to piece together what he is saying

 These tips did seem to help us during the visit. When my son did get frustrated, I encouraged him to talk it out with me. It made him feel better that mommy understood every word.

Visits like these can be hard. You think you have come so far, and then you quickly are reminded about the work that is still to come. During times like this, I constantly remind myself of where we were, and the progress that has been made. It gives me hope that one day, he will go up to his Auntie, and she will know every word he says.