Completely omits the 's' sound

[Discoveringpluto]

My daughter is 3 years 11 months and completely omits the 's' sound.
So she says 'lippers' for 'slippers' or 'leep' for 'sleep'.

It's very cute but she starts school in September and people often don't understand what she's saying.

Is this normal? I've got 5 children and I've never had this with the 's' sound. (She's the youngest).

I would say it's pretty normal. My son is nearly 6 and still can't pronounce his R letter properly. If you're worried, ask for a referal for speech therapy they should be able to give you some things to try at home.

Thanks! I have a nearly 6 year old too, /'d she also can't say the 'w' sound. The funny thing is that her name begins with R

My son's speech therapist told me they can't teach them the letter R and L until between 8 and 10 years old as they just can't grasp it. It's strange how different all children are! I hope you manage to get sorted 😁

Hey! I’m an SLT so might be able to offer helpful advice.

The two examples you gave were both in “clusters” I.e more than one sound together, examples would be br bl cr st sl pl etc. Is she just omitting the s sound in these words (sl st sp sk str Etc) or is she also omitting them in more simple words such as “see” and “sun”?

If it’s just in cluster words I wouldn’t worry too much (well, I wouldn’t worry too much at all regardless - speech sound delays are pretty easy to sort with the right help). Clusters can take up until age 5;11 to fully develop and so most speech therapists wouldn’t work on them until then. If she’s finding the sound tricky in all words then a referral to SLT would be recommended. They’ll check at what point there’s a breakdown - I.e is it because she finds it hard to hear the difference (discrimination) and so doesn’t use it, does she know when to use it and finally is she able to use it. Depending on where the breakdown is will inform therapy. But like I said, these kinds of difficulties are often simple to fix.

I hope that helps,

Sorry to hijack, but my little one can't say "s" at 2 and a half. Technically she can make the sound like a snake, but she substitutes either l or b for s at the start of words. Is this still to be expected at her age, or do you think she needs intervention @Jeb86?
Thanks so much

Mine couldn’t do this either. Slippers were “wippers”, Sophie was “Rophie” etc.

We did have speech therapy as he also mispronounced L, R, TH and G and even we found him difficult to understand.

After about 8 weeks of therapy and exercises at home he could do s, l, d with no problem at all, and also “r” cleared up without us even addressing it which our therapist said was quite common. He was just under 3 when we did this.

TH has also cleared up by itself.

My son, who goes to school, can't pronounce the letter S. sleepover for him is weepover

Thank you so much for all these helpful replies I must admit it's very cute when she says she's 'leepy' (sleepy) hehe.

I am going to listen to her carefully today and answer the questions above.

Thanks again!

Sorry for the delay cedoran. The thing you’re describing sounds like “stopping” which is when a sound that normally “whooshes” through the mouth gets stopped in the mouth, in your LO’s case, gets stopped at the lips with a b. I think this is still typical until 3;6 so I wouldn’t worry about it, especially if she’s able to produce it by itself and he’s not doing it in the middle or end of words? I’d refer at 3 if she’s still not looking like she’s fixing it herself, that’d give time for referral and waiting times :)

I remember one sentence of mine’s was “heyo Ram’s goggy” which was “Hello Sam’s doggy” - clearly he needed some help even though it was pretty cute.