My DS (3) has some problems with his speech. Obviously we're a bit worried but working with nursery on them and have seen the GP for an ENT referral. We don't know exactly what the issue is but nobody thinks it's developmental. He is conscious of it himself and a bit sensitive over it at times. We don't want to make it into a big deal and just keep encouraging him, reading to him a lot and chatting with him about things he likes etc. He can clam up if we ask him to say something specific so we try to make things more relaxed and fun and don't focus on the fact that we're working on his speech.
My niece (7) keeps discussing his speech with us in front of him. It's not just once or twice it's repeatedly every time we've seen her for months. It's a fairly limited topic so there only so much to ask. Both me and DH have answered questions, repeatedly, along the lines of he's still learning, we all learn at different speeds, he's still quite young etc.
I started worrying about this conversation about him taking place in front of him so repeatedly. Although I'm not suggesting she's being deliberately unkind, the questions are about what he can't do and why he can't do it yet which he totally understands and I worry is knocking his confidence. We've tried distracting from it, she still asks over and over. We got to the point recently of explaining that talking about it might not be nice for him. Still she keeps asking. I'd have no problem keeping up answering questions (of course we do on other topics even when they feel a bit off) if it wasn't for how it may be affecting my DS to keep hearing himself being talked about like this. It feels weird to me that he's being talked about while standing right there, never mind the subject.
She recently stayed over for the first time and the conversation kept coming up over and over and I'm just not sure how to approach it with her any more. I don't want to keep talking about it in front of my DS but she's showing no signs of stopping asking.
I've been googling advice on what to do but then thought it might just be best to send my sister a message. I said how lovely it was to have her stay and how much fun they'd had then explained that the topic of DS's speech keeps coming up and that we've answered often but asked if she might now have a chat with her DD about it. I said I know she's 7 and just curious but I'm a bit worried about having a conversation about DSs speech in front of him so often.
My sister went mad at me reminding me that my niece is only 7 and wasn't being she wasn't being nasty (something I never suggested) but I was being nasty and that there should be no more playdates.
Was it wrong to broach the subject with her?