Daughter aged 3 can't pronounce R's properly

[SnackBitch2020]

My 3 (almost 4) year old daughter has really clear speech and a good vocabulary, but can't pronounce her "r's" properly. The R sound comes out as W e.g. she says tweat instead of treat.

Is this something that she will likely grow out of?

Thanks!

Hi, my son had this too. He has some speech therapy as his speech had other issues too and the speech therapist says it’s one they usually grow out of by 7ish. DS is 11 now and occasionally still makes a W sound instead of R but he’s very much improved.

Yes! When DD was about that age, I came across a sounds charts and R was the last one on the timeline, IIRC children can take up to 5 or 6 to get that one right. I’ll see if I can find a copy.

This is very common and very likely she will grow out of it. My daughter had this with the letter H. She would say Sudson instead of Hudson, for example. When she was about 4.5, it just magically stopped. I really wouldn't worry!

DS used to say Doy Dauce for Soy Sauce etc. He grew out of it.

I think R and S and some of the last ones. My just 3 yo lisps the S and says w for R.

Hopefully, my three almost four year old is exactly the same tweat, wabbit etc. He also can't pronounce his C/K sound, that comes out as a T. Tat, tabbage, toat etc.

I do a lot of phonics with him and I generally correct his mispronunciation. He'll either grow out of it or it's a speech impediment and we'll deal with it if it's raised at school and we'll go down the speech and language therapy route.

She will most likely grow out of it, I remember vaguely that children's brains don't finish learning to speak properly until something like between the age of 7-9.

My dc had similar impediments but we were never concerned and she has grown out of them

Like some young children say lellow instead of yellow as an example and it is because they are still learning where to put there tongue to make the right sound.

It was something like this. I obviously forgot about the other sounds or maybe the one I saw was in my mother tongue.

Did they have a dummy for a long time?

childdevelopment.com.au/resources/child-development-charts/speech-sounds-developmental-chart/
This is a very good developmental progression.

My 3 (almost 4) year old daughter has really clear speech and a good vocabulary, but can't pronounce her "r's" properly. The R sound comes out as W e.g. she says tweat instead of treat.Is this something that she will likely grow out of? There is nothing wrong with your daughter's speech sound development. /tr/ as in treat is a consonant cluster which is quite advanced. No SALT will see you for this. It's not something you grow out of. It's just that she doesn't have the r sound in her phonological system. If she says tweat then just repeat the correct version in a sentence e.g. Yes it's a lovely treat.

Thanks for all your replies, it's good to know she'll likely grow out of it! I'm not worried about it all, just curious to see if this was common or not, thanks!

I, aged 59, still can't pronounce my 'r's properly!
Not as obvious as eg. Jonathan Ross, but definitely tending more towards a 'w' sound.
I am also otherwise articulate and intelligent. I basically talk for a living.
It has not held me back...

My 2 years younger than me sister couldn't say sh. Shoulder was sole der. Fish was fis. My bossy 5 year old self made her say the words over and over again. At 50 she now says them the way they are pronounced.

By son couldn't pronounce his R's until he was at least 7/8. He never had a dummy so it was nothing to do with that. It certainly led to a bit of embarrassment when he was talking to my brother about cricket and the players' 'rankings'.

I spoke to a speech therapist about it and she advised me to repeat the word prior whenever he said it wrongly but using the right pronunciation.

And also to make up games so he had to repeat with r in the sentence - like 'The robin called Richard ran away to Redcar'

It was "Bish Bingers" when my son started reception, thought he might get speech therapy recommended, but didn't. I think he'd sorted it by the end of the year.
He still can't do R's properly (he's 6 now). We're not particularly concerned, neither are his teachers. I think it's because he's got a slight tongue tie.

My ds couldn’t pronounce c, g, t when he started school

There was a few of them in the year who had some in school support through their SENCO and he was fine by end of reception

My youngest who is now 6 couldn't pronounce the letter L properly at that age. Lollipop was pronounced wowipop and he called smarties fartmies. One day when he was around 4 and a half he was able to. No worries now at all.

I too used to get my son to repeat words beginning with L. Just a couple of minutes at a time of this 'game' and it seems to do the trick.

This is completely normal.

There's no need for any intervention.

DD can't pronounce letter L properly. It sounds a bit like letter Y. I know a lot of kids say "lellow" for yellow but she says "yeyoh" I asked at pre school when she was still there and was told its not anything to worry about.
I think that the further south you go, less people pronounce the letter R properly. It's really common.

Glad to hear it's normal! I wasn't considering any intervention and don't have any problem with how she speaks, just curious.

My DC is 7 and just noticing the change from saying w for r to most commonly using the r sound correctly.
I did speak to a speech therapist who said it is something they grow out of without help and he has.
To reply to the previous poster, he never had a dummy, not sure that is relevant?

Say the word arse one time and no doubt she'll copy it perfectly

@muckypuppy

Say the word arse one time and no doubt she'll copy it perfectly

Haha yes!