Are the speech struggles receptive speech or just expressive speech? What kind of speech and hearing eval has he had?
Can he follow single-step instructions? 2 step instructions?
He's never had a speech eval, and his hearing tests fine. I think his speech issues are just expressive, although he just doesn't retain info he hears. I think he understands well in that moment though.
He does follow single-step instructions well. I've noticed that he will grab on to one word or concept if I give more complex instructions. If I say, "Go downstairs and get the book that is beside your pencil box." He might come back with the pencil box. He just grabs hold of that one word or concept and runs with it. I've been chalking this up to immaturity and being more developmentally typical than his brother was---but maybe he's not able to retain all those words in his mind. I might experiment with this or have him repeat things back to me and see what I learn from that.
Go get a speech eval. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. By 4, he should be able to understand that slightly more complicated example and execute correctly.
If he cannot understand spoken speech, it makes perfect sense that he'd struggle to learn from it.
I have found that there are places that will get you in for the initial evaluation very quickly, and others that give the same evaluation have a mile-long list. With a 4 year old, you don't want to wait 6 months. Get a referral, and also get on the phone. These are standardized tests that are relatively easy to administer, and I don't worry about how giftedness affect the interpretation of the results.
