Hi lb (I'm a speech pathologist myself )

I'm sorry to hear you're having such a drawn-out, not-straight-forward diagnostic process with your DS' speech. I appreciate that you're confused and perhaps a bit frustrated at this point. Is your DS frustrated with his speech at all?

Can I say from the outset: forget cyber-diagnosing!! If your DS had an obvious phonological delay/disorder, I assure you that the SP would be able to use that label and appropriate treatment strategies for the same. And you know, if you got a second opinion (in person ), maybe that's exactly what the next SP would diagnose? But not all developmental speech problems are so obvious and sometimes a diagnosis is hard to reach and sometimes it's a matter of trying a raft of treatment strategies to see which is most effective for creating correct stable speech.

It's unfortunate that the SP has appeared under-confident with your DS' presentation but IMO your best options are to 1) seek a second opinion, 2) ask the SP to consult with a developmental speech sound specialist, or 3) start with the therapy that your SP prescribes (leave google alone ) and see how it goes for a few months - you do still have lots of time to correct speech sound problems before they impact on reading development.

Good luck!