speech goals for 4.5 year old How is his oral muscle tone?  Does he have any eating or swallowing problems, such as favoring soft foods, filling his mouth too full, or choking?  Since both you and his ABA therapists aren't satisfied with his progress, I think it's a good idea to get another opinion.   My son who has ASD has been receiving speech therapy since he was 19 months old (1 hour/week), and although he has made great progress, I am concerned about his articulation.  He is quite verbal, but he speaks like his twin sister did when she was about 2.5-3, and he is almost 4.5.  His IEP focuses mostly on pragmatics in terms of speech, which is certainly a big weakness.  His speech therapist keeps reassuring me that I shouldn't be concerned about his articulation errors because most of what he says is "intelligible," but I am worried that the way he speaks makes him stand out even more from his peers.  His ABA team tells me that he has worked through all of their Kaufmann cards, but he doesn't seem to have generalized.  Should I request another evaluation, or have him evaluated privately?  Are there articulation standards for a 4.5 year old?  Thanks in advance.I can't go into too many specifics on the topic as i don't know too much about the standards.  I do know that I have been told by more then one speech therapist that young children rarely qualify for speech based on articulation. Thanks for the responses.  My son has had two hearing tests, but he was not entirely cooperative with the headphones.  However, they were able to finish most of the test and did not see evidence of hearing loss, and he responds well to sounds around him.  He does have low muscle tone in his face (he drooled for a long time, had a lot of trouble learning to eat solids because he struggled to control his tongue and lips, seems to have reduced sensation in his lower face), which I think is the more likely culprit.  Has he had a completely successful hearing test with an audiologist?  I would definitely rule out any hearing loss.My daughter has qualified for ST through the school from the beginning for articulation problems and quite frankly, I don't think her problems are too severe. She has a lisp, no big deal. Articulation is one of those grey areas for school systems. I'm not quite sure the best way to word this. I have been told that articulation problems are not considered that serious for some students so some school districts/states are trying to limit the amount of services they provide when articulation is the only problem. In other words, if you are in a system that is already overwhelmed and/or underfunded, you may run into problems getting services for articulation errors. If you are in a really good district (like we are right now), you may find them practically begging to give your kid more services. We had my son privately evaluated since his problems were severe. It took some time to get him into the school system and I knew we couldn't wait. I'm glad we didn't wait. If you feel strongly that you're son needs assistance now, have him evaluated privately. It will cost you financially, but it will pay off in the long run for him. He may need OT in addition to ST to overcome the problems. If you go that route, request another eval from the school system as well. When they do the eval, be sure to give them all the information you have from the private therapist.
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