A man recently shared his story of not wanting to “waste money” on speech therapy for his daughter. For the sake of his story, we’ll call him Steve.
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Fast Talker
Steve explains that his daughter is a fast talker. He explains she never realizes she is doing it, and most of the time, you can understand what she’s saying, and it drives his wife crazy. So Steve and his wife had their daughter’s school evaluate her, and they said there was nothing wrong with her.
They said she is “very smart,” and her “mouth is trying to keep up with her brain.” They added that there is a chance she will grow out of it naturally. Unfortunately, Steve and his wife were also told that their daughter doesn’t qualify for free speech therapy provided by the school. Steve’s wife looked to see if their insurance would cover it, but it wouldn’t.
Speech Therapy
She decided that she wanted to take their daughter to a speech therapist. Steve thinks that paying a speech therapist would be a waste of money. He expresses he doesn’t have a problem with how she talks, and her teacher doesn’t have a problem with it either. He thinks since his wife is the only one bothered by it, it isn’t worth spending $150-$200 a session to get her to speak more slowly.
Steve says his wife is upset that he’s not considering her feelings and cares more about money than her and their daughter. Steve discovered that she has been looking for ways to get their daughter the therapy cheap enough that she can afford it without him and hasn’t spoken to him much since the argument. What do you think?
The Masses Weigh In
The online community stuck with Steve on this one. One person pointed out that Steve’s daughter’s issue isn’t a speech pathology thing that requires a speech therapist; she just needs to remember that she’s talking faster than most people can listen. They added that peer pressure and teachers would solve the problem eventually.
ADD or ADHD Testing
Someone else pointed out that his daughter might have ADD or ADHD and asked if she had been tested for that yet. Another individual shared their experience as a fast talker and how their parents handled it. They said that their parents put them in activities like speech and debate, where enunciation and diction were taught as part of the activity.
They shared that the activity gave them a fun intellectual challenge while simultaneously teaching them how to control the speed of their speech without feeling self-conscious. Another bonus, they said, is they learned to enjoy public speaking.
One expressed they understand Steve’s wife’s frustration, but that doesn’t mean their child needs to be put in a program to be fixed. They suggested that his wife might have an issue regarding listening and comprehending faster speech.
Finally, they acknowledged that Steve’s daughter would need to learn to slow her speech down at some point but that his wife’s failure to understand her wasn’t precisely the daughter’s problem. What would you do?
