daughter being refered to a speech therapisr

[midwifeandmum]

I picked my dd1 who is 4 from nursery and her nursery teacher asked me if was ok to refer her to a speech therapist

She tends to add an a on to alot of words, such as "daddya". She does this with ALOT of words.

She tends to get excited when she talks and it can be difficult to understand her but if I ask her to pronounce properly, she will. For example she will say "lellow" for yellow. But when corrected she will say it properly once then resort back to mispronunciation.

Is this just lazyness?

Kids don't realize how important it is to speak properly. Now you do efforts to understand her, but later in her life people won't. I think kids go to speech therapist a few times and they improve a lot. I have a friend whose parents didn't bring her to therapy. People, who are used to her talking, understand almost everything, but stranger don't. And this affects her self-esteem a lot. You can solve this problem really quickly now, until she becomes 6 years old. I know that it is much more difficult after that. You can learn the exercises the therapist teaches her and you can practice them at home. I would encourage you to sign up her for such classes.

The therapist will assess her and tell you whether they think it's necessary. I wouldn't worry about it, lots of children need fleecy therapy. Some only need a few sessions, some , like my DS, are in it for longer.
Best to get it sorted now whilst she is still young.

Speech therapy!! Obviously not fleecy therapy lol??!!

Speech therapy is for children whose language is poorly developed not for a four year old who is not yet articulating clearly! Can most people, even those who do not know her, understand what she is trying to say? Has she got a good vocabulary and does she speak in sentences? Does she understand what you say and can she follow complex instructions/answer questions with more than yes/no? If so she is probably OK!
If she has a specific articulation difficulty due to e.g. cleft palate, then maybe the speech therapist would give you some specific exercises for her to do to help her articulation. Your GP or HV (if you can find one) should be able to help with that diagnosis.
Does she have a dummy? If yes reduce the use.
Does she chew food well? If not encourage her to eat things that need chewing as this helps to develop muscles for articulation.
Try not to correct her directly but just repeat the correct pronunciation as in, 'Yes that is the Yellow one.'

Good luck!

Some 4 year olds would be seen- she needs to be screened and they will likely refer her to have her hearing checked.
She won't be expected to be totally clear at 4.
Lellow for yellow not an issue at this age. Things like 'ta' for car, 'pog' for 'frog' or 'dun' for sun would be.
Yes to repeating words back correctly by commenting 'yes it is a fast CAR' etc, but no direct correction.

You can do some talking games with her, but as the others have said, it's important to repeat the correct pronunciation and not to correct directly.

For example, set up any game - something like Buckaroo is good. Print on small cards some images of words that she struggles to pronounce, put the images face down on the table. She starts first, picks up a card and says the word slowly and clearly three times, then she can put a piece on the donkey. Then your turn. Etc. A mirror can be useful so that she can see herself pronounce the words as well as she can. You can use any words, sounds, colour, etc, and pretty much any game, and take turn. It's only just a game but it can help children improve their pronunciation.