Q: I received this interesting response below after answering a column about a 5 year old's speech problem. Only his sister was able to understand him and teachers were assuming he was a slow learner based on his poor speech. I had recommended an evaluation and therapy by a speech therapist.

A speech therapist continues to be the first person to consult for such an evaluation, but if that doesn't effectively improve a child's speech problem, our reader made an excellent recommendation to seek a second opinion.

A: I read your article about a 5-year-old boy with a speech problem, and it reminded me of the long problem that we had with my daughter. This letter may not be relative to their problem, but maybe...

My daughter's now 54 years old, so if any of our problems or solutions are outdated, all that's been lost is this letter.

As a new baby, our daughter had a number of problems including loose bowels, difficulty bringing up gas and she was unable to drink as quickly as most babies. She was very cute. After holding her every night while sleeping on the couch, so that she could be in an upright position, she finally seemed to outgrow her terrible four-month period. We spent much time trying to get her to copy us saying "mama," "daddy," etc. She walked just as she was turning one. Speech was her only problem. Our doctor sent us to a variety of speech therapists over the next few years. They had her listen to tapes of herself talking and tried to get her to copy and correct her problems.

Finally, when she was in first grade, we gave up on the local doctors and therapists and had her examined by the doctor in charge of throat problems at Boston Children's Hospital. He sat her in a chair, spent about a minute looking into her throat and said that her larynx didn't hit her palate when she spoke. We arranged for her to be admitted to the hospital. The doctor told us that, to date, no operation for this had been done, but that he thought that he could do something. All we could do was hope that he was correct.

We were with her when she woke from the surgery. She spoke to us as plainly and clearly as we ever could have expected. She no longer had a speech problem. Unfortunately, she never got over the days during which she was made fun of by the other kids. Her teachers didn't call on her for answers to problems because they didn't understand her. She lost a number of years and still remembers so much.

I read your article in the Cape Cod Times. I don't generally write to advice columnists, but having undergone what your reader's going through, I had to offer this advice. Please forward my letter to the family whose child has this terrible problem. I wish that I'd had this information before my daughter went to school. If there's a problem that you can't solve locally, go right to the top of the doctors' lists. Good luck.

For a free newsletter, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the address below. Dr. Sylvia B. Rimm is the director of the Family Achievement Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, a clinical professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and the author of many books on parenting. More information on raising kids is available at www.sylviarimm.com. Please send questions to: Sylvia B. Rimm on Raising Kids, P.O. Box 32, Watertown, WI 53094 or [email protected]. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.