I was wondering if a child who sucks their thumb has more problems with learning to read. What are ways to help them stop? Also, my 3-year-old son has a speech delay (articulation speech). What are some ways to help him?

I’m smiling as I answer your question about thumb sucking—I was born with my thumb in my mouth, and sucked it until I was 4 ½. Now some might say I’m a bit delayed )—but for the most part, I’m relatively normal. In my teaching experience, I have never read any article addressing, or seen any correlation between reading development and thumb sucking. I’m not saying there might not be one. No doubt, someone’s done a study on it, but I’ve never seen any correlation whatsoever. I will have children sucking their thumbs in my class (I teach 4 and 5-year-old’s), while they are writing their names, answering questions, and being every bit as engaged in the activities of the classroom as every other child. There is a bit of a social stigma the older the child gets. Thumb sucking is recognized by young children as a cute baby thing, but at 5 when they’re trying so hard to be all grown up, they notice in other children when something is still “babyish.” But at 3, you’re still fine on that score. Your pediatrician might have a few tricks that he/she’s learned over the years—ask. Also the Internet could be very helpful here. Almost all children’s magazines have a website that you could search out articles on thumb sucking ideas and helps.

The speech delay is a little bit of a different matter. Your best help here would be keeping in constant contact with your pediatrician to track his progress and development. We have many children in our preschool who are speech delayed (many related to ear infections, etc.—the pediatrician will also be able to give you a definitive ear inspection), and have still made remarkable progress with their reading skills and reading levels. We have many children who are visiting a speech pathologist regularly to help improve their speech concerns. Again, your pediatrician will be able to recommend someone who is #1—very good with young children, and #2—very qualified to help in this area. Also many universities have speech pathology labs and clinics that may help with diagnosis and treatments that might be a good resource as well.