my son is almost 7 years old. He has been in speech therapy since he was approximately 18 months. he was first diagnosed with severe oral motor delays. he also had multiple ear infections and chronic fluid on his ears which affected his speech as well. he has had 3 sets of tubes, his tonsils and adenoids removed. as he got older it was determined that he had severe phonological and pronunciation issues. he was eventually diagnosed with severe verbal apraxia. added to that after a psycho-educational assessment was completed he was diagnosed with ADHD combined type, executive functioning and Speech Sound Disorder (can be found in the DSM 5).

over the years it has been extremely challenging being a single mom with a child with significant speech issues. When he first started daycare at 18 months he had a hard time communicating his needs as he was not very verbal then so he would act out in frustration. as his speech progressed, daycare teachers had to intervene and assist him in interacting with his peers by interpreting what my son was saying or asking his peers. when he talked to anyone else outside of daycare my mom or myself was always interpreting for him and there were many times that we were unable to figure out what he was saying and asked him to show us what he wanted.

as his speech progressed in speech therapy things got a little easier but there were stills times i was unable to understand what my son was saying. he eventually got transferred to participate in speech therapy via the school system. getting him to want to participate in his sessions has always been a challenge up until the end of last year just before he was forced to be discharged for a year to allow other students to access the services. to this day he still has issues with speech. blended sounds and single sounds he has difficulty with and will often replace harder sounds for easier ones.

i hope this helps. I am from Ontario Canada. feel free to message me if you have any questions for me