10 year old speech decline

[SanaGoggins]

Just wondering if anyone else has experience with this. My daughter’s speech has become really lazy. She talks really slowly and with lots of vocal fry kind of like how Americans talk. She has also started saying “dem, dey, dat” instead of “them,they,that”. She never used to say this, this has started in the last 6 months or so. She also developed a weird stutter. A large part of me thinks she’s putting this on tbh, but it’s just so odd. I’ve asked her why she does it and I correct her every time but it’s getting very grating now. She has no additional needs. Is this just a weird phase they go through?

If she has developed a stammer I would seek advice www.nhs.uk/conditions/stammering/

Similarly if slurring words I would get advice.

Don’t correct the stutter. It will make her more self conscious and make her more likely to stutter.

I’m ignoring the stutter, but correcting the mispronunciation.

Has anything else changed with this? Are her body movements slower? Seemingly becoming more clumsy/ditsy? My daughters language definitely changed around the teen years using more slang words but wasn't slower with her processing. I would definitely keep a close eye and ask to be seen by a health professional if it continues. Anxiety/overexcitement can cause stutters but anything to do with slower processing should always be checked out.

I would say it is almost certainly mostly an affectation.
The stutter probably not but is something that kids grow in and out of so keep an eye on that.
What happens when you ask her to speak properly? Can she? Have other adults commented such as school?
My two 11-13 year olds have a set of speak affectations learned from you tube that they do with each other and with me when they wish to get on my nerves. Sounds similar to your daughter.

Does she watch you tube, American TV etc?
My son used to pick up a lot of Americanisms at that age
And also loved Dan TDM at the time and started talking like him thankfully it was a phase!

I’d also ask if she’s watching You Tube/TikTok etc and picking it up from there.

I was going to say TikTok too - TikTok tics are a “thing”.