“My daughter is depressed about her speech problems”
My 12 year old daughter has a speech impediment. She works very hard on improving her disorder, and rigorously practices her home exercises from her speech-language pathologist, but gets teased a lot in school. She's depressed. Should I take her to an adolescent psychiatrist to help her feel better about herself?
9 Answers
Yes, please get her evaluated. I had troubled with speech as a child too and recall all the associated challenges with it.
Hope that helps.
Dr. Sangra
Hope that helps.
Dr. Sangra
I am sorry, but this is not my area of expertise. However, have you ever talked to her teachers and the administrator about the situation? Also, what does her speech pathologist say about this? Good luck. I know as a parent myself how upsetting this is. Kids this age can be really cruel. I hope your daughter can overcome this situation.
Is she receiving help from a speech pathologist? If so, for how long? Is she receiving her progress on a regular basis? Are we dealing with a permanent impediment? Has she gotten better? If so, in addition to speech therapy, she should get mental health counseling.
Yes. This is a logical stress for your daughter and she needs a place to talk about it and more importantly work on developing her abilituies and identifying thwe thigs she is good at and can achieve well with so she can focus on what she can do , not what she has trouble with
EIther a good adolescent therapist or child/adolescent psychiatrist can work with her about her self esteem and depression.
Yes, seeing an adolescent psychiatrist is a pro-active way to help your daughter work through her emotions and help her continue to work on her speech goals.
It will not hurt.
Terlenda Lassiter
Speech-Language Pathologist
What I found when working with adolescents was I helped them find something they were good at to take the focus off of their impediment. I had one 15 year old boy join the mathletes and the students lessened on teasing him when he won the top prize for the school. I had another girl join the lacrosse team and another girl noticed her impediment lessened when she sang and she joined the choir and even did the school talent show and gained some friends after winning third place. I would encourage your daughter that she is awesome, amazing, wonderful, unique, and the same kids who tease her now might be asking for a job from her later.
Marat Nadirovich Shamsutdinov
Adolescent Psychiatrist
I am sorry that your daughter is depressed. Yes, she needs to be evaluated for an appropriate support plan.
I hope it will help.
I hope it will help.
