Three year old speech

[Mol1628]

I’ve tried to google but I get mixed answers

My son has just turned three and I have some worries about his speech. Well mostly his pronunciation and I’m not sure how much is normal for his age. He’s about to start pre school and I’m worried he won’t be understood. I understand everything he says, his dad and 5yo brother do as well. He uses quite complex sentences and answers questions really well. For example the other day he chose about 5 books for bedtime stories. I asked him if he wanted me to carry them upstairs for him and he said ‘no thanks, they’re not very heavy’. So it’s not a language issue at all. He knows all his colours, can distinguish big and small, really no issues at all.

But he mispronounces a lot. Snake is Nake, water is dor-der Outside is out-yide, Lego is De-doh Really just babyish sounding I guess. I don’t remember having this concern with my other son when he started pre school.

So what’s normal at this age? Will he catch up? I know he will be referred through pre school to SALT if needs be but I’m just looking for some experiences from other people. My OH thinks I’m over worrying and he will catch up just fine.

Think it's something like speech immaturity rather than speech delay. My ds had speech therapy around that age as some of his pronunciations were wrong e.g. said 'par' instead of 'car'. We had homework to do to work on correct formation of sounds

Ah thanks. I’m hoping it won’t affect his learning much.

I referred ds through the hv as I knew there was an issue

I've got a similar issue with DD. She is 3.7 and can't do various sounds, mostly L, R, Ch, Th, Qu, although her vocab, sentence structure, and understanding are all very good. She's just very difficult to understand and I have to translate her a lot for other people.
She's just been referred to SALT by the HV and I mentioned it at her school (she does 2 hours a day in the nursery) and the class teacher said she had been planning to bring it up with me, so there is obviously an issue there.
Sorry OP, no answers to give but if you're concerned I would push for a referral.

Thanks everyone. His key worker said she will sort out a referral if they think he needs it and she can do work with him in pre school. I don’t know what I’m looking for really... just reassurance that he will be ok long term?!
I don’t know why it’s happened since we always talk and read to him, in fact he never stops talking, and he’s otherwise very bright and sociable.

I wouldn't be worried at all. I'm a qualified nursery practitioner and I get parents coming to me all the time worrying about their child's speech. Children develop at different ages, your son is trying his best and that's the main thing and if he is understanding well then that's a bonus to you!
When he starts pre-school you'll notice a huge difference. Children need guidance to learn new things but will only pick it up when they are ready.
You can try looking at picture books with him which may seem very 'babyish' to you and him but if you ask him what the picture is showing he will Concentrate more on the question your asking him and he will be using the sounds and letters without even realising and then the more he uses the sounds the better he will get naturally.

Thank you for that.
It’s interesting you say that about picture books because we found some of his old board books the other day. Farm words and animal words and he’s loving them. We always read at bedtime but I’m trying to do some more during the day too.

I suppose I compare him to his older brother who was always very clear.

Sorry I honestly didn’t mean it like that at all. I understand it’s not a parents fault.. just personally I feel like I’ve failed him for not noticing sooner or getting him help.

Apologies I didn’t mean offence.

Aw great and even better if he loves that.
Also a really good game my children love is silly soup.

You sing a song and 'add stuff' into the 'silly soup'. They can come up with silly suggestions such as a shoe, lettuce, pencils, anything they want. This will be great for him.

Here's a link to get you to know the song. (It'll drive you crazy after a week). Let me know how you get on :).

My daughter also struggled and we did private SALT with her. Certain sounds are expected at certain ages so they'll be able to assess if he is delayed in some of these. The SALT was amazing. They would work on each sound and after two seasons for each she would get it. Initially they worked on making ute she heard the difference in a sound. My daughter made huge progress so I'd highly recommend doing it. She's one of the top in her class now (5) so in our case it had no long term effect. For some reason she just seemed to struggle with that

Sessions not seasons!