Question
I am writing in regard to a 4 year old boy who I evaluated last week, following teacher and parent complaints of him adding the /j/ sound to the end of most words. They expressed concern regarding other students shunning him, and his two year old sister n
Answer
This is, indeed, an interesting behavior. I agree with the plan that you have developed and think that your short games to make him aware of this speech pattern is a good way to address it. I agree that it is likely that he will figure it out quickly nd maybe would even do it on his own. I especially support your suggestions to the family that they avoid correcting the child whenever he is talking. If they are going to address the problem at home, I agree that it should be separate from their conversations with him. I was interested in what you said about it being "almost like stuttering behavior" when they correct him. I am wondering if this might be more like stuttering behavior than an articulation/phonological issue. So my other suggestion (which I think you have thought about already) is to be on the lookout for anything that suggests tension or struggle on his part. If that occurred, I would likely tell the parents to drop the issue altogether. Finally (and again, you probably already did this), I would assure the parents that there is no reason to worry about the 2-year old imitating him.
I am not aware of a good reference to address this exact question, but in general, the following is an excellent reference for children with articulatory and phonological disorders:
Bernthal, J., & Bankson, N., (2004) Articulation and Phonological Disorders. (5th Edition) Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Nancy Creaghead is a speech-language pathologist and professor at the University of Cincinnati, where she teaches in the area of language disorders in preschool and school-age children. She can be reached at nancy.creaghead@uc.edu.
