The past two Wednesdays, Gwen started seeing a speech therapist here in town. From the time she was little, she's been pretty hard to understand. I thought that was normal though. It wasn't until last year when her nursery teacher told us we should take her to have her speech evaluated, was I aware that she didn't sound quite like the other 2-3-year-olds. It was just about impossible for others to understand her, and since she looked older than kids her age, this really confused people. How old is she? Is she slow? (Her nursery teacher came to us, absolutely surprised that Gwen knew all her letters, because she didn't sound like she should, I guess?) Anyway, I let her get a little older to see how her speech progressed on its own. But when she started primary, and all the little 3 and 4-year-olds sounded so much older than Gwen, I decided to talk to a doctor about it.
Last Wednesday, Gwen was tested to see how much she understood what was being said to her. She scored in the average range. Today, she was tested to see how much she could express herself, and scored in the average range again, but just barely. I really liked how they tested her. She surprised me with how much she did understand, it was just that she wasn't so good at expressing herself. I didn't realize she understood just about everything I told her. Today, her articulation was also tested, and that was well below the average mark. (Probably why she scored low in expressing herself.) After all the testing, it was discovered that Gwen has two types of lisps -lateral and frontal. Her tongue slips between her teeth (frontal) and other sounds get pushed into her cheeks (lateral.) Her speech therapist said she never saw someone with both lisps before, but it's a really good thing we discovered it early (how could we not have?) She usually starts therapy with eight-year-olds when then come in, but by then it's really hard to correct. So there's a good chance that Gwen's speech will start to clear. She sees the therapist once a week and we'll be given exercises for her to do everyday at home. Then when she starts school, she'll have speech practice there as well. Hopefully, she won't be teased too much, but Gwen has a great sense of humor and is so friendly, I think she'll do just fine with others. I think her over-friendliness is a little more shocking for kids than her speech.
So my little girl has a lisp. If we're not careful, Phoebe could pick it up from her sister. We have to correct her all the time to make sure she makes the correct shapes with her tongue. (The therapist noticed that Gwen's tongue was a bit bigger, which might be why she's lisping.) But I'm glad that it's just a lisp and not a learning disability or something even more serious. She's perfectly fine, she just needs some speech lessons.
And she's just that more adorable.
