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Behaviour/development

Pronunciation - problem?

2 replies

Cherrybug · 30/11/2010 17:05

DD is 2.5 and has problems with pronunciation. She cant say f,s,sh,ch,th. Should I be worried about this? She genrally has a good vocabulary and comprehension.

I can sometimes get her to say 's' if I really focus on it - getting her to say 'ssss' and then the word e.g. 'ssssss snowman'. But then she reverts back to not pronouncing it properly.

I don't pull her up too much when she misprononuces a word for fear of making her self concious about talking but should I be doing something? She's looked after by me and my MIL who can decipher her speech so I'm also wondering if that affects her motivation to get it right. She doesn't have all her teeth either so dont know if that has anything to do with it.

I'd be grateful for any advice!

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belgo · 30/11/2010 17:09

She is still very young and it's normal at this age.

Having said that, I hear that the waiting list for speech therapy in the UK is very long. It might be an idea to see your health visitor, and try and get her on the waiting list, in the hope that when she finally gets to see a speech therapist, she won't actually need it. And if she odes, then she has it as soon as possible.

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bubble2bubble · 30/11/2010 17:18

Those are some of the last sounds a child learns so TBH it's unlikely to be a problem. If, for example she can sometimes say 's' and sometimes not it generally means that she will say it automatically in time but is still learning.
You can help by maybe picking on one sound at a time and really overusing it - books/rhymes/songs that have loads of s words, getting her to fill in the s word etc. DD2 had a huge problem with m words at the same age and I had a lift the flap book called It's Mine which we read constantly and it really helped - she eventually got it. The other thing - which you probably do - is to get her to look at your mouth as you make the sound e.g. to make an s you need to really exagerate clenching your teeth together
( just read back your post & realised for this a lack of teeth probably doesn't help! )

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