Pronunciation of 3 year old

[rachel1]

My 3 and a half year old son is very bright and has a great vocabulary but I am slightly concerned about his pronunciation. He has problems with words starting with the letter 's' and, to a lesser extent, 'f'. He can say 's' fine if it's in the middle of the word and can use it on it's own (if he makes the sound of a snake for example), but has real problems, even if I go through it with him, to start a letter with an 's'. For example he says 'nake, instead of snake and 'tory' instead of story. Given hes only 3, is it a bit young to be worrying about this or should I contact a speech therapist? Has anyone else's child spoken in a similar way and just grown out of it? I appreciate your advice.

Both my dd's had this trait, eating with a 'poon and running away from 'piders! They both outgrew it by about 4.5 yrs. HTH.

rachel1 - my son did this, and didn't "grow out of it". He started speech therapy when he was 3 yrs 10 months, and within a few months was saying 'f', 's', and 'sh' - none of which he had made before. But since then he has stopped making progress, (still can't say 'c' or 'g', and some consonant blends) - he'll be 5 in July.

I would recommend getting a referral to a s.t. now - through your health visitor - it may take some time (up to 6 months in some areas) to get an appointment!

But don't worry too much - my son is extremely bright - he has massive vocab, and is a very fluent reader already - the speech problems don't hold him back in that area at all - though we were warned that they would do! It's just tough socially, if their friends can't always understand them easily, or just that they sound a little odd.

When your son says 'sat', does he pronounce a 's', or does he say 'dat', or something else?

Good luck -let us know how you get on.

My 3 y.o. ds pronounces some words that start with 'v' with a 'b' e.g. 'bideo' but then he can say stuff like 'velociraptor'. (I think you can see where his interests lie!) To be honest I'm not worrying about it. It seems to me that most children go through this. All his peers have problems with at least some words. Hope this is of some reassurance.

My dd (3) has problems with 'th'. She also has a lisp when sounding 's'. My mum (who was a special needs teacher) told me not to worry and that most children go grow out of it.

ds has been seeing a speech therapist since he was 3½ yrs (he's 4½ now). To start off with he just wasn't talking much, and mainly what he was saying couldn't be understood, except by me and his key worker at nursery. We haven't looked back since. Once he started talking he wouldn't stop but he was having the problems you're all describing.

Basically, whenever we worked on his pronunciation we over exagerated the sounds that he was 'missing out/off'.

For example;
Snake was sssssssssssnake.

'b' would be used instead of 'f', to get round this, where ever there was the 'f' sound, we got him to rest his top teeth on his bottom lip and blow/flick his lip out.

The ST took things very gradually so that he didn't realise that he was having to work. She had games made up for him to play. We carried on this work/playing at home and it's really paid off. It only takes up 5 or 10 minutes.

If you are at all concerned contact your HV and ask for a referral.

After 9 mths of assessments and working with ds at home, only his teachers and ST could tell that there was a problem. I made a point of telling his class teacher about his speech, even though I'd already put it on the various forms I had to fill in for him starting school. She was really good about it and explained that there were a couple of other children in his year that were seeing a ST, and that they would get those children together occasionally to work on their speech. He's never come home from school saying that anyone has been mean to him about the way he talks sometimes.

BTW ds still has check ups with the ST, but these are now only every 5 or 6 months.

Apologies for waffling.

My almost 3yo son has the same trouble with his "s" sounds at the start of words. He can definitely say "f" though, but unfortunately uses it in place of "tr" as well as where it belongs. So "tree" is fee, "train" is fain and "truck" is...well I think you can figure that one out! He talked late and had s.t. from when he was quite young for about 6 months. Then he caught up really quickly and now his vocab is ever expanding and most of his pronunciation is good. It's just those few things...really like to fix the "tr" sound though! Any ideas welcomed! The only other concern I have is that he won't say his own name...and I know he can say the sounds that are in it. If you ask his name he replies "ME!"

Dd had trouble with her hard "c" sound, so cat was tat and cow was tow etc. (Made curds and whey sound very unappetising lol!) It only took a few st sessions to "fix" it, and I think it saved her some teasing at school. See how he goes in a few months, and if you are still worried it wouldn't do any harm to get him assessed. In the meantime, try to find some books or picture cards (or make them up if you can draw a bit), of things starting with "s" and play a game with them. Hide-and-seek them or play match-it, snap etc. Snake, seal, sausage, spoon, slide, socks, seahorse, sandcastle, snail, stars, strawberry, spade, sunglasses...only do it if he wants to, don't force it, and don't spend long on it, maybe 15 minutes every third day or so. You might be surprised at the difference some practice can make! Good luck, hth!

Hi Rachel1, I have been told by a student of linguistics that children do not form all their words correctly until past the age of 6. I was told this a few yrs ago so can't remember all the details, sorry- but others may have more info? I was relating the fact that my sister (who was 5 at the time) was still saying a few words muddled up like 'brefkast' and 'Nov-um-ber', but these went within the following year. (Ironically I'm hoping to study linguistics next yr myself so if you hang on a bit...! )

I think I would personally be tempted just to leave it and see what happens for now, especially given his age and as his vocab is so good...

Took ds for his regular appointment with the ST, we got the all clear. He doesn't have to go back, but the ST said he'd phone me in about 6mths just for a chat to see how ds is getting on.

For anyone still wondering whether to go down the ST route, it's well worth it, the relief and peace of mind is wonderful when you're told that there are no problems (no more than is normal for your childs age).

I agree with SueDonim. S is one of the hardest. Like the word spaghetti. Most little kids still say basghetti as an example.

Anyone had any exp of a child who has difficulty pron. blended "s" sounds, like st, str, sn etc? Ds is 3y 8m and still can't say them properly - should I be concerned? Snake is take, string is tring, sneaker is teaker, start is tart and fast is fart! Most of his other speech is clear, but he is starting kinder next year and I am worried other adults/kids may find it hard to understand him. He gets very frustrated when we can't work out what he is trying to say. Any comments or advice welcome!

mollipops, my DD1 had this problem - the bit I remember specifically was "sn" pronounced "h", eg Snoopy was hoopy and snake was hake, but she found other "s" sounds difficult too.

She also confused "t" and "k" so that the words cake, Kate and take all sounded the same (tate). Also with the letter l, at the end or in the middle of words (eg hill or milk), but I forget now how she said those (she is 20 so it's a while ago! She used some odd words of her own too, eg elephant was "bampipper" for a long time.)

IIRC this went on way past age 4. She just gradually became able to say them properly - she started school at 4.9 and had no communication problems. HTH!

PS She is now studying linguistics!!!

Someone once told me that apparently S is one of the trickiest letters for children to say.

JanH - I had speech therapy as a child and now have a degree in linguistics.....

Bozza, do you work in that area too? DD doesn't plan to - she chose linguistics because language development was part of her A Level Eng Lang syllabus and she found it interesting, enjoyable and easy (!), but although she is very happy with her degree course she doesn't plan to go on and work with it. Pity really.

I read (like Lizzer says) that some sounds children don't master until age 7. 3yo DS says "Fwenwy" (for Henry), and butchers th sounds. With great concentration he now says "Sorry" rather than "Heudy", at least.

Rather than seeking a speech therapist, I would have thought it a lot easier to pop along to a playgroup/nursery, and ask same-age children in the room to say all the questionable words. If most of the kids have the same funny pronunciations, you know yours is "normal".

Or even different funny pronunciations!

DS2, when 3 and a bit, said "b" for "f" - "bive bish bingers" was his classic. He also said "c" for "p" and "b" for "g" (claybroup). (But a few months before that his vocabulary had consisted of only about 15 words, most of them things with wheels, so he sounded quite good in comparison with that!)

No JanH I'm a computer analyst. Like your DD I did well/enjoyed my English Language A-level (which was quite a new subject then 1989-1991) and so chose that degree due to having no vocational aspirations whatsoever. I then did a year as an au pair before falling into this job and it still suits me now that I've returned part time after my mat. leave. As in consistent access to Mumsnet

am sure its nothing, but my daughter had problems with her speach for a long time and still does this is becuase we found out last year aged 9 that she is 25% deaf in both ears. now although i dont know the medical ins and outs - she isnt deaf enough for a hearing aid, and she also could hear well enough to pass the school and baby tests, so p[lease dont settle for those tests if you are worried press for a thorough examination