Why Speech is Important

We often had kindergartners who struggled with speech as they entered school. Some students had minor articulation issues, but others had significant problems. The students were not easy to understand at times. Even their parents sometimes had problems understanding what they said. I always hated having them repeat themselves until I understood what they needed or wanted to tell me.

One day, I had a parent call me in a panic. She told me that her child, a kindergartner, had told her that there was a student who had a gun on the bus that afternoon. I called the bus driver immediately, and he said nothing was out of the ordinary.

I quickly launched an investigation with my heart pounding first thing the next morning. I brought the little boy in to see if I could get more clues about what had happened so that I could figure out who had the weapon. I asked the little boy, whose speech was not the best, to tell me if anything had happened on the bus the previous day. He said, "Well, um, Billy had gum and wouldn't give me a piece. He made me mad." Anything else? He replied that nothing else had happened, but he didn't know why Billy would not give him a piece of gum. I said, "Like chewing gum?". He affirmed that it was chewing gum. It was GUM....not the other.

I thanked my lucky stars that day and called to tell the boy's mother the good news. She was embarrassed, but I told her she had done the right thing, and I was glad she had called. Then we discussed getting her son into the speech program! Always err on the side of caution!

Later...