Speech problems in 6 year old twins

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I have identical twin boys who are 6 years old. I have worried about their speech for a long time. Pre school always told me it was fine. In reception one very experienced teacher told me it was fine, the other not so experienced said it wasn't. We went to speech therapy who said it was all within normal ranges.

Now in year 1 the teachers think it is not fine - one is fab but an NQT, the other is awful.

We are being referred by the doctor (school didn't want to do the form!) but I think this will take ages as the referral process has changed.

They have improved massively over the past year but they still cannot say 'th' - they say 'n' so instead of this and that, they say nis and nat.

They also struggle with 'sh' and tend to just say 's' so instead of 'she' they say 'see'.

The other thing they do is instead of saying 'what is he doing' they say 'what is him doing' or 'him wants a drink'. They never use he or she, just him and her.

They also both would say 'I hungry' rather than 'I am hungry' but this seems to be improving.

I think a lot is due to being twins as they are reinforcing the incorrect speech to eachother. They are in separate classes and they have improved massively since they saw the speech therapist. I assume it is mostly developmental as they both have the same problems.

I am trying to correct them when they say it, but the him/her he/she thing is so ingrained and in almost every sentence they get fed up with me keep correcting.

I have just found some ways of teaching the 'sh' and 'th' sounds and we will try them later and keep practising.

Does anyone have any ideas to help and also how bad this is - the teachers were saying it was urgent etc, even though the speech therapist said some of the sounds don't always develop until age 7-8 and they now have most of the sounds.

The speech therapist is right (speaking as a SLT trainee and a linguistics graduate) - sounds develop at different times and the fricatives (sh and th) are amongst the last to be acquired.

I can tell you that correcting them will not make a jot of difference to their speech, so you can relax on that front. They're only six - they're doing fine. They have plenty of time to pick up the preferred form.

Thank you, that was exactly what I thought after we saw the speech therapist but this teacher really worries me as she said it would hold them back and they really needed to be referred urgently. Everywhere I look it says 'th' may not be learnt until age 7.

Do you have any idea on the him/her he/she thing? As to be honest it is quite annoying and part of me is worried they wilol talk like it forever!

very How old were they when you went to the speech therapist? My ds had speech and language delay, SALT assessment felt it wasn't bad enough for therapy at the time. Like you ds's he also used the him/her when it should have been he/she - also used to say 'them' instead of 'they' (he was about 4/5 at the time. It was corrected by the time he was 6. However, today aged 8, we are about to get him some tutoring for his vocab which is a bit weak for his age due to the initial delay.

It was a year ago. at that point they were missing the sounds off the starts of most of their words and were unable to say their own names clearly. The improvement has been massive since thn, with only these two sounds, plus the him/her he/she thing.

We are waiting on the speech therapy but have a feeling it's going to be a while. The SALT did say that there wasn't any prolem with vocab etc at the time.

Can I ask what the problem is with your DS's vocab?

My ds has other 'issues' ... he was dx with ADHD aged 6 along with dyslexia a while after. Don't panic, it doesn't sound like your twins are anything like him. The dyslexia dx was a surprise as I thought he was doing ok with literacy, as did school. It was actually a SALT friend of mine that suggested we got him tested as his vocab was 'weak'. His ADHD didn't allow him to hear sounds properly as he's brain was all over the place. We learn to talk by listening, so it's obvious now why he had speech problems. Just thinking, have you had their hearing tested? So many speech problems can be related to poor hearing .... Meanwhile, I think they sound only slighty delayed in their speech

Yes as it was thought they had slight glue ear when they were younger. The hearing is fine but I wouldn't be surprised if this was part of the cause when they were younger and they are now catching up. They were also 2 months premature which probably didn't help!

Ah, it all goes towards their development. Any hearing problems could affect their speech and language. And I think you are right .. they play catch up. they'll get there eventually. Just like you, I was told to correct him .. it definitely worked.