Toddler Pronouciation

[amelie427]

Hello

I am a FTM to a 21 month old who seems to be developing fairly normally with his speech - not advanced, or delayed, just average I think.

He has a fair amount of words - probably somewhere between 50 and 100 - and is just starting to put two words together. And then he babbles a lot in between.

However, his pronunciation is terrible 😂 ...
we can probably understand more than half of what he says, but quite regularly have no idea what he's trying to tell me! Sometimes this ends up in big meltdowns. People who don't know him that well don't understand much of what he says.

I know it's normal for toddlers to miss the ends of words or struggle with pronunciation, but I'm just not sure what's normal, and when it becomes an indicator or hearing issues?

Some examples of how he says some words...

Buh - bus
Meh - mess
Kickin - chicken
Ahplay - aeroplane
Byber - spider
Kaka kaka - Macca Pacca

Its all very cute really, but I would love to help him communicate better if I can. I'm not sure if there's anything I can do, or if it will just come along on its own? And I suppose I'm just asking if this is normal and when I should expect it to improve?

TIA!

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Sounds totally normal that he doesn't get the pronunciation right at 21 months.

Have you tried introducing sone simple signs so that he can get himself understood more easily? This might reduce his frustration

Have you had a look at Talking Point too?

[TigerQuoll]

Agree with pp about signs. My 15 month old niece has signs for "more" and "all finished/had enough of that". Makes sister's life easier - less frustration tantrums. Although maybe it will slow down his speech if he has too many signs - my uncle taught my cousin baby sign language and he didn't speak until around 3....

[MumUnderTheMoon]

My dds speech therapist told me that I should always correct her incorrect pronunciation. If she says something wrong I just repeat it correctly usually she try's to copy me and then we move on. If your ds is getting frustrated try learning a few makaton signs in the meantime it usually helps to stop any frustration.

[amelie427]

Thank you everyone!

Good advise about the signs, he does use some at nursery so I'll try to reinforce this at home.

And I'll make sure I repeat the words back correctly too.