pronounciation

[gpops]

My georgous DS is 4 1/4, and seems really unable to pronouce certain things - ie Milk becomes Milt, or Bug become Bud, Goggles come out as Gobbles - we understand him, but are just starting to wonder if we should get him some help before school starts in Sept - any views / experience / advice? We never draw attention to it, but we do use the correct pronounciation in front of him.
I also notice that he has a tendancy to write mirror images of his few letters, and often writes backwards...any link? any cause for concern or all just pretty normal stuff?
Sorry, lots of questions, just looking for few answers...

[luciemule]

Hi gpops - maybe you could ask for him to be assessed by a speech therapist. I know it's worrying and there's so much stigma attached to child development but he is a boy and their speech does come on later than girls I think and my son (although only 2) is quite similar. He pronounces things incorrectly but his vowels are there (which means they are going in the right direction). The thing is, like you, we understand him and so although we correct him, he probably feels he's able to continue that way as he can make himself understood.
My SIL took one of her sons to Canada before he started school and he had a strange accent when he returned that wasn't either canadian or english. But she took him to a speech therapist in his first term as the other children couldn't understand what he was saying and eventually it sorted itself out.

[gpops]

thankyou for this, and for your time in taking the trouble to respond - it helps to get another view of the world - take care

[Twiglett]

IMHO you should get him help .. take him to a SALT (speech and language therapist) as soon as you can .,.. you will probably have to pay privately to be seen immediately otherwise dependent on area there's something like a 6 month waiting list

you will be amazed at how quickly the exercises and teaching should help improve his speech patterns .. I think he really needs to be a clear communicator at school - its a huge change and will be far easier if he has as clear speech as possible

[Twiglett]

I think Luciemule is slightly wrong in the speech comes later for boys ... IME my son was speaking earlier than my daughter and far more clearly .. she is now 2.8 and I have a slight concern over some of her letter formations so I am already repeating back clearly and considering playing some word games with her

I think by the age your DS is that many, but not all sounds should be easier for him and he may have slipped into bad habits .. but again nothing to worry unduly about .. some letters don't come until they're 8 or so I believe .. I'd just get it looked at by a professional as early as possible

[sazjaz]

hi my son up until the age of 5 spoke a total different language no one could understand what he was saying except me i took him to a speech therapist and they really helped his now 8 and speaks fine

[Piffle]

Hi gpops
My dd was 4 in october and has had some speech difficulties and been assessed since 18 mths.
At her last assessment at her 4th birthday she could not say K G L or F

she was using a process called "fronting" to try to get the sound out. These K and G require the sound to come from the back of the mouth.
The SLT said that these fronting sounds were transition and she'd bet by age 5 dd would have them all.
And that she would not consider it a true delay until after 5th birthday as these sounds are often delayed.
it is true, dd has just learned to say K G and got F after xmas, we are still missing L though.
We did try and encourage ehr to use the back of her mouth to make animal sounds like Gaaa Gooo and this took the emphasis off the actual speech issues.
My dd cannot write at all so no help there I'm afraid

[gpops]

OK - so it would seem that there would be no harm in getting some help with this - thank you all very much - don't know why it seems so hard to make these descisions by oneself....!