Advice on speech in nearly five year olds

[puddle]

my dd is almost five and starts school this term. She really struggles to make some letter sounds - in particular with Ls (she says them as Ys so 'lolly' would come out as 'yo-yee' and SH which is still a bit like 's.

I have been trying to practice saying sentences with the letters in them. She is a bright little thing and her use of vocab is excellent (for example when we tried to practice Ls yesterday she came up with the sentence 'the lama lazily licked a lemony lettuce lolly') - but am aware that sometimes other adults struggle to tell what she is saying. Should I be worried about this now? Will it correct itself or do I need to look for some help to do so?

She said to me at the weekend 'I am embarrassed that I can't say my Ls'. I don't want it to become a problem for her.

My niece has exactly the same thing and she's a similar age. I wouldn't worry about it. My dd1 was in reception last year and there's a huge range in terms of speech. Some of the children were very hard to understand, others were almost spouting Proust. I think if you're sure that she doesn't have a hearing problem or a palate issue, then it will correct itself in time, although I don't know what I'm talking about in scientific terms! It's probably worth discussing it with her teacher at the very beginning of term so she/he understands that your dd is sensitive about it and can help.

I don't agree that you shouldn't worry about it. If she has said she is embarrassed, then it is already affecting her self-esteem and self-confidence. It needs to be tackled now otherwise you run the risk that she'll become withdrawn at school. She needs to be assessed by a speech therapist. Your GP can refer you or there are private ones. Our NHS ones are absolutely useless - so overstretched that you wait literally months for an assessment and we've had six 30 minute sessions in a year for a child with a severe phonological disorder (most adults struggle to understand). Private therapists can be pricey (we pay £65 an hour for ours) but worth every penny in my opinion. They'll give you lots of exercises to do with your daughter. Our therapist said the best thing we did was getting help for our son early on. I'd really encourage you to make some enquiries sooner rather than later.

You see, this is exactly my dilemma! Two opposing views.

She has been at a really excellent pre-school who told me they had no concerns about her speech - I guess my worry is that she said she was embarrassed about it.

It would be useful to have some more views on how common this is (a friend told me that the L sound is one of the most tricky for children to learn). My ds's speech was always very clear from an early age so have nothing to go on there.

DS1 (5) started reception last year. He was referred to a Speech Therapist by our HV as I had mentioned at a pre-school check-up that he couldn't say his Ls. The speech therapists were great. Theysaid that this is a common problem. They gave us exercises to do which DS1 wasn't keen on but his reception teacher did do with him after I filled her in on what the Speech Therapist had suggested. One Speech Therapist actually suggested giving him one of those shoelace sweets as eating them requires using your tongue in a particular way! Anyway, DS eventually started saying his Ls, initially in a really quite pronounced way but now they are fine and he has been discharged.

So, do go for a referral to a speech therapist. Our appointment didn't take very long to come through and they were very helpful.

Sorry for long post.

Hello. I'm a SALT although not working just now. This is indeed a common problem - both l and sh are quite "late" sounds so it's not unusual for children of 5 to have not sorted them out yet.

I would have started seeing such children for some input around your dd's age, but not younger.

I wouldn't try doing tongue twisters with her as she just won't be able to manage them. There are a lot of things a SALT would do before getting your dd to try and produce the sounds she finds so hard. One thing is getting her to listen for the sounds in words as she may not even be hearing the difference, say between "yes" and "less.

Good Luck.