When to start encouraging correct pronunciation?

[pjmama]

My DD age 4.5 is a chatterbox like most girls her age, but still pronounces the letter "L" as a "Y" e.g. "I love you" is pronounced "I yuv you". She's always done this and I've never worried about it, assuming that at some point she'll grow out of it and will start to pronounce her "L"s properly.

She's not showing any sign of doing so though and I was wondering whether I ought to start gently encouraging her? I've heard that there's a window for tackling speech difficulties and if a child goes past a certain age, they can become set but I've no idea if that's true or what types of issues that refers to. Could do with some advice? Thanks

God yeah, gently but constantly show her the correct spelling. My ds2 was a lazy one with speech & I corrected him over time, so it can be done. Get her to sing a line of "L's" (literally la-la-la-la-la) to get the 'feel' of the letter, then move on to L-words. I Like Lollipops. I Love Lemonade etc. Correct every time, she'll soon 'get it'. HTH.

I don't think it is too much out of the ordinary to be honest. Is your daughter at school yet? If so what does her teacher think?

It is my understanding that there are is a progression in terms of speech and language development and that some sounds aren't considered to be delayed until the age of 6+
I'm sure the doctor wouldn't mind if you made a short appt to check their opinion either!

Unless it's a tongue-tie (which you'd know already) I'm not sure how a Dr would help. I corrected my ds2 from age of 3. We have a speech therapist visit our preschool occasionally (I work there part time) and she says same - make games out of letter sounds etc.

The Y/L sound is one of the last children get. Best way is not to overtly correct but if she says I yuv you, you say "yes darling, I love you too" with emphasis on the "L" sound.

My dd had problems pronouncing the v sound at the beginning of words so 'very' would be 'bery' for e.g.

She was still doing it when she started school but I suddenly realised one day that she'd stopped and was pronouncing it correctly. So somewhere between age 4 & 5.

As PP says, the y/l sound is one of the last ones to come so don't panic. Model the words for her but don;t force her to say them 'properly', chances are it will resolve itself before vey long.

I repeated it back corrctly with mine...so she woul say "I wuv wose" instead of I love Rose...and I would say "You love Rose? That's nice..I love Rose too...tell me again...who do you love?"

And that was all I did...she was fine by aged 5 or thereabouts.

Thanks very much for the advice everyone!