3 year old very unclear speech

[Newmummy9]

My 3 year old daughter has very very unclear speech, only my partner and I can understand her and then it’s only if it’s in context. She is an enthusiastic talker and is very chatty but it is almost impossible to understand her out of context. However, in front of people she doesn’t know she goes totally silent. She’s just started nursery so it’s early days there.

She’s not very good at answering questions like ‘what did you do today’ but is very bossy and chats in sentences such as ‘X has a dirty nappy, I can change his nappy’ ‘my chickens laid 3 eggs today, they are dirty’. But nobody is able to understand her. She sometimes misses off the first consonant, sometimes the last, there doesn’t seem to be any pattern

If I ask her to say a word she will try but it is always very wrong.
Some examples:
Water = momo
Cow = bow
Helicopter = eycoter
No = bo
Bin = bim
Lid = bim
Baby = bay
Sleep = eep

Her other development seems on track. She’s a very well behaved and easy little girl who’s very smiley, and plays nicely with her little sister. She shares her toys and fetches her sister toys if she’s upset. She hasn’t seen many other children, except for her sister, over lockdown but has now started nursery. She gets very excited when her grandparents come to see her.

She has been having NHS speech therapy since she was two and has just started having weekly private speech therapy.

HV says nothing to worry about.

Has anybody had a three year old like this and how did they develop over time? How long did they take to catch up? Did they go on to have other problems? Should I get her seen by anybody else?

No real help as such but we're in the same boat. Dd just turned 3 has good vocabulary, if anything slightly advanced, but speech is still fairly unclear and occasionally even we struggle understanding her. I have mentioned it to her preschool quite recently and they're putting together some evidence so that she can get some speech tx hopefully. It is frustrating because I don't know that many 3YO's so don't know how much behind her peers she is. What triggered me to ask for referral was that mine regularly misses the first consonant completely off the start of her words which is apparently a bit of a red flag. I would definitely talk to your dd's nursery and ask for an assessment. The way I see it it's better that they get support now than once they start school which will likely then just lead to their confidence being knocked and feeling singled out x

Sorry just saw that she's already in speech tx. To be honest I'm not sure there's a whole lot more can be done. Just make sure you're repeating things back to her in a conversational way and try and get eye contact but try not to correct her. If she's having speech tx and has the social drive to do it I would be cautiously optimistic that she will catch up x

My almost 3 year old is exactly the same- I have contacted the health visitor for further advice and see if she can be put into speech therapy. I’m just super anxious and sometimes feel like maybe it’s something I’ve not been doing right. Would love to know how she’s got on.

Hi,
My daughter is now 5.5. She is still having speech therapy but I understand 90% of what she says, as does her class teacher. The process is amazing. She has all her consonants and is able to do most consonant blends but is still a bit off with her vowels. Eg ‘ay’ sounds more like ‘eye’. She is just above average in her class for reading so her speech hadn’t impacted this which is great and she is pretty good at spelling, she often spells words correctly even if she pronounces them wrong. (in fact the speech therapy helped her with reading as she knew all her letters and had a good awareness of speech sounds before she started school). Strangers still can struggle to understand, although once ‘tuned in’ they pick up most of what she says. I have never discussed her speech with any other school mums and no one has asked me, she’s fine going for play dates etc, I only mention this to make the point that she’s at the stage where lots of people wouldn’t realise there was a difficulty. developmentally everything else is spot on. I hope this provides some reassurance.

PS I am the original poster but don’t know how to change usernames back!

PS, nothing you’ve done. Just one of those things. Be prepared that speech therapy is a lot of work for parents. That’s how most of the speech therapy works- the sessions basically teach parents what to do. Have you considered private? Even the odd session might give reassurance and allow you to be proactive with helping her.
Otherwsie, keep making a fuss to NHS speech therapy and you should at least get a call with a therapist who might be able to give you some ideas before your child is assessed

This does provide some reassurance thank you and it’s nice to know it’s not had a major impact on her other development areas. This was a big thing for me when it comes to her speech, as my ds is where she should be with her other development areas and doing great but I felt like later down the line if I don’t get the support in time then other areas could get impacted. I have also considered private speech therapy but not sure where to begin to look for the right person/company so open to suggestions. My mind goes into overdrive thinking her speech will affect her in all sorts of ways and she won’t have any school friends, she’ll be left behind, she won’t be great with work in class and will be behind in everything and sometimes need to remind myself to just chill and not over think it. Just start by getting the support and helping her at home. But your post has definitely made me realise she will hopefully get there with the right support in place. Thank you for the re assurance.

I was in exactly your same situation 3 years ago. I have just had my daughter’s first parent meeting, I really drilled her teacher on my daughter’s speech and she was totally unfazed, apparently my daughter has lots of friends and none of the other children have ever mentioned her speech. Apparently she’s very confident in class and often puts her hand up. Her maths is better than average and apparently she often explains to other children how to do it- so clearly neither her nor they are phased by her speech.

I was advised to find a private speech therapist on this website: https://asltip.com/.
we’ve got an amazing lady who is so reassuring. If you can afford it I would really recommend it. It’s great to have an expert on hand to ask any questions too.

I really hope you make progress and please do ask if you have any questions. Good luck!

aww it’s great to hear that she’s doing well. It definitely sets my mind at ease knowing that despite some speech concerns she has been doing great in other areas. I guess my assumption was if there’s some kind of speech development issues it would set every other development areas back but it’s amazing knowing that’s not always the case. I will definitely check out the link and have a look into it. Thank you.