Thpeech Help

Recently, I read a couple blogs where moms were writing about some of the struggles their children are experiencing. Things such as learning disabilities, speech concerns, social interaction struggles and the like.
When I look at my sweet baby Lily and think back on the genetic testing and placental mosaicism and then my sweet, sweet husband looking at our new tiny baby wondering if he'd be able to "see" if she was ok, I am so very grateful and blessed that she was born healthy and is growing and developing as she should be. Not to say that she won't struggle with anything as she continues to grow, but at this moment, she is perfect. ♥

Speech is a big deal for me.  I have seen children in my classroom who struggle to speak correctly and for many of them it becomes an issue of self esteem.  I did have one sweet little boy in kinder one year who struggled with his speech. He spoke very babyish and it was difficult to understand him.  Add to it, his mom was pregnant with a new baby, so we anticipated a possible regression.  My principal, the speech therapist and I advocated for this boy to start speech therapy at school. Thankfully, his mom was on board immediately!

He was my only student who would have to be pulled out for any services and I wanted to ensure that he didn't feel singled out in a negative way. We'd be in circle time each time it was time for him to go and we'd sing or chant him off wishing him well and welcome him back when he was done...as a group.  It still makes me smile to think of all these 5 year olds cheering, "Welcome home!" when he'd return from speech. ♥

The first time he went, someone asked, "Where is M going?"  He proudly answered, "To beech".   That started a ton of "I wanna go to the beach! Why is M going to the beach and we're not all going to the beach?"   Ummm, we live in the desert. It's Arizona.   :) 
I explained he was going to "ssssssspeech" and was met with "ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" light bulbs.  They were a fun group. :)

Andrew was a talker early on. His first real word: "giggle".  Around 10 months.  I read a lot of books, sang a lot of songs, he was my only child and all the attention was on him.  He walked early, talked early, crawled early and things still come very easy for him.  He's a bright young man. 

When he was born, however, he was tongue-tied. At 3 weeks, we had it clipped.  The ENT said that one of the issues it could cause to leave it tied was speech problems. We had it clipped because, in his early life, it was causing feeding issues. 

Speech was never an issue.

My stepdaughter has a lisp.  Earlier in her life (ages 3 and 4), she struggled with the letters "l", "w" and "r" as well as the letter "s".  With tools I had from teaching experience and further talking with the pediatrician, when she was just visiting us every other weekend,(prior to shared custody) we managed to help her correct "l" "w" and "r".  

After my husband trying to communicate with biomom regarding these issues for the last 4 years, we've hit the point where we have no idea how to help my stepdaughter anymore and her speech is getting worse.

Biomom has said varying things over the years, such as: "we don't feel she needs to speak correctly at this time", "of course she can't speak right, she has no front teeth", and "let's wait until next year". 

George has been in contact with the speech therapist at Reagan's school since before she started kindergarten. Explained our concerns about the speech issues, asked for some more suggestions to work on at home and waited for the formal kinder eval to take place.  Yes, at the time of the kinder eval, Reagan's front teeth were missing thus making it difficult to work on the letter 's', but the speech therapist recognized the issues.

Not too long ago, I had run into the speech therapist at school and she asked me about Reagan since George had spoken with her regarding speech at the beginning of 1st grade again. I explained where Reagan's speech is with regard to her lisp and the letter 's' and expressed our concerns about some other letters/blends that are now issue.  Shortly after that encounter, the speech therapist had gone in to Reagan's classroom to informally evaluate her (i.e. just talk to her).  

The speech therapist contacted George and explained that she agreed there is a speech issue that needs worked on.  However....  she had contacted biomom who refused. 

George was floored.  She refused?  Apparently, the speech therapist thought I was Reagan's mother all this time, so the opposition she was met with confused her at first. 

So, instead of addressing the REAL issue at hand...which is my stepdaughter needs speech therapy to correct something that should have been started YEARS ago and perhaps she'd be done with it by now, the issue (for biomom) becomes how I'm not the parent and biomom is.  Act like it.

Pretending your daughter doesn't have stuff to work on doesn't help HER.  It's only going to make HER life harder. 

In the meantime, we still try to work on what we can at home until the school can do something to help with services.

What do you do in situations like this when there is shared custody, but one parent refuses what is best for the child?  End up in court?   Throw up your hands because the constant battle is ridiculous?

I'm tired of court. I'm tired of dealing with the basics.

We're not just the "oh well, since it doesn't happen at biomom's, we're not going to do it" type of people.
If my son needed speech therapy, he'd be in it.  If my daughter needs it, she'll be in it...EARLY. And not because I worry about what other people think but because being a mother, requires me to do what is best for them.

I can't imagine how frustrating it is for my husband to have equal say and be met with opposition at every turn.  He doesn't care about biomom and her garbage, just their daughter.

Inthead we have to ethplain to a theven year old to thop thaying wordth like thith and remind her EVERY time she speaks to keep her tongue behind her teeth.

It has gotten so bad, it is difficult to understand her sometimes. Moreso than when she was 4.

Any speech therapists out there have any more tools for lisps to help us add to our toolbox?