3.10yo started pronouncing words strangely

[MadMonkeys]

DD1 is 3.10yo, very bright and articulate. 3 weeks ago she started pronouncing words oddly - words she could previously pronounce without any difficulty. Traffic has become ter-affic, cross has become ker-oss, tree is ter-ee, clock is ker-lock, bravely is ber-avely etc etc. I thought it was a conscious thing, a bit of a phase that she would get fed up with after a few days but 3 weeks on she is still doing it. It seems to be words with l or r as the second letter.

I've ignored it most of the time so as not to make an issue of it. Once or twice I asked her to pronounce a word normally (gently, I didn't make a massive thing of it) and she paused, then pronounce it correctly. But then carried on with the weird pronouncing thing. Is she exploring how words are spelt and breaking them up consciously? Anyone else had this experience?

Yes! How funny. DS1 3.9 yo. As your DD is, he has always been articulate, he was speaking a few words at 9 mths. He has fairly recently started saying 'pur-lee-as' instead of 'please'. I've put it down to him experimenting with the sounds of the word. We do a lot of rhyming with words and word play. I don't think I've corrected him on it - in fact sometimes I say it myself now. I don't think it's anything to worry about.

Hi MissRabbitCV - it's kind of encouraging that someone else is experiencing it too. Does your DS do it all the time? My DD does it loads, all the time I think.

Ds does it too...he just turned four and will say I'm hungarrry or I'm fereezing. Must be a phase

Yes, hungarry and fereezing,she says both of those. Phew,i thought she was having some kind of stress or something that i didn't know about and this was a symptom! Thanks guys

He does it all the time. Funny wee things!

Probably just testing sounds, though is there anything she watches on television that she may be copying? Or possibly someone at nursery? They are great mimics at this age.

My 3 yr old occasionally talks like Keith Fit from Gigglebiz (we are from the South but DC can do a great Northern accent! )

Could it be learning the sounds of the alphabet, like imagine yourself over-pronouncing the first sounds of the words, like "t" is for "t-raffic" and "b" is for "b-anana" emphasis on first letters. Getting this from nursery?

Probably just trying out sounds and playing a bit with words. My DN went through a phase where like was loik, and bike was boik etc. for no apparent reason at all.

The 'pur-lease' thing (and similar) is probably not helped by the wise old elf in Ben & Holly saying 'Nanny Per-lum' when he's telling her off. Quite a lot of people (as in adults too) do add the unnecessary extra syllable when they're trying to stress something as with 'pur-lease'.