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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Speech at 2.6

22 replies

Ohfgseveryone · 21/12/2007 21:57

Just how clear is your dc's speech at 2.6?
I'm really not sure ds is that understandable by others....

He usually says about 3 words at a time but loads of endings are missed off and words come out garbled.

OP posts:

gigglewitchyouamerrychristmas · 21/12/2007 22:16

i don't think you want to hear from me but i didn't want the post to be unanswered. if nothing else i'm bumping you
my DC have talked incessantly from around 12mo, DD is just 2 (early Dec) and is trying to stick 6 words into a sentence at the mo.
however there are huge ranges, language is developmental and they acquire vocab and the 'hang' of pronouncing sounds at vastly different ages. Some children in DS2's class (3&4 year olds) don't talk as well as our chatterbox 2yo, others sound like adults with high voices! It is all particularly interesting to me as i have a speech impairment and often wonder how the children can pronounce things perfectly when I'm not always sure that i am giving them a clear example - tho i try to make sure that my own speech is careful when i am telling them new words.
I honestly wouldn't worry too much at two yrs about all the endings and stuff in place, their little brains are working far faster than their mouths can cope with at this age, hence the strops and tantrums. It's a lovely stage, make the most of it and all will develop in its own time. FWIW - My friend who is a head teacher says that boys are often less fluent than girls at pre-school age, then catch up at 5 or so.

gigglewitchyouamerrychristmas · 21/12/2007 22:17

lol at saying tantrums then its a lovely age.....

Brangelina · 21/12/2007 22:25

Well, my DD is 2.5 and only I understand her. She does say quite a lot and her sentence structure is OK in her dominant language (less so in English, alas) but her pronunciation is not good. She can't say K or G sounds and all Ls and Rs are Ys. She also leaps to the end of a word and misses out the beginning quite a lot.

Try not to worry, I do sometimes as I'm surrounded by other people's children who all sound like mini adults but it will all come together one day. I've already noticed huge progress in her vocab in the last few months and her words are slowly becoming more distinguishable.

Brangelina · 21/12/2007 22:27

Sorry, pressed post.

I just wanted to say, focus on the positives. In a few years time you'd never know he was a late talker.

gigglewitchyouamerrychristmas · 21/12/2007 22:37

well said, Brangelina

amytheearwaxbanisher · 21/12/2007 22:39

i understand my ds 2.4 but sometimes have to translate his three word sentencesi wouldnt worry about leaving endings of my ds does this when he says a new sentence it takes a bit of practice to perfect and he always says sawsee instead of seesaw no idea why

Original poster

Ohfgseveryone · 21/12/2007 22:51

I'd guess maybe 50% of what he says would make sense to someone else even with context.

It isn't just the odd word coming out garbled. He is making a lot of progress but I'm a bit worried he's really quite behind what is the norm at his age with his pronunciation. But I just don't know enough kids his age to compare to to see if this is just normal.

Examples - trees are tees, blue is boo, green is gee, red is yeh, counting is 'yeh, two, hee, four, fise, seex'

I think he has learned some sounds wrongly and is now relearning them and his newer words are pronounced much better from the beginning.

Does all this sound normal (be honest!)

OP posts:

Original poster

Ohfgseveryone · 21/12/2007 22:52

Other egs. he can't say thanks at all and just mumbles dan, can't say hello, ca for cat, dar for car, etc etc

A lot of sound substitutions and missing endings - not just the odd one.

OP posts:

wrinklytum · 21/12/2007 23:00

I bet in a few months he will be word perfect

He obviously has a keen grasp on colours,and counting at 2.5.Very impressive

It will come together,I'm sure

They differ so much.DS was an early talker and very clear,dd is severely restricted re speech etc.

He sounds a very bright boy.When he is three you may be wishing he is quieter and less verbose LOL

gigglewitchyouamerrychristmas · 21/12/2007 23:04

I honestly do think it sounds normal.
if you are really concerned about it, or just want to discuss it, why not get hold of your health visitor or gp and ask what they think? my DS2 (age 4) has some crazy sounds and you get the impression that he is speaking with a mouthful of water (which he sometimes is) - so was referred to speech therapy for an assessment and had six-monthly progress reviews. they said that with his particular problem that they wouldn't be concerned unless he still had the difficulties after around 7 years old. the SALT was great and didn't make us feel like we were stressing over a minor issue, though.
worth asking?

amytheearwaxbanisher · 21/12/2007 23:05

ok well mabey bring him to a toddler group to see a comparison of other children his age in all honesty his pronunciation doesnt sound at all bad and he knows his colours!!thats more then most kids his age!

TheMNPeacekeepingForce · 21/12/2007 23:06

name changed - the Op here - Giggle that's what I'm slightly worried about that I'd go to the HV or SALT and they'd think I was worrying for nothing. I really do have no idea of what is normal at this age and nothing I've found on the net really tells me.

Brangelina · 21/12/2007 23:07

That's exactly what my DD does. And you're spot on about the seeming to relearn words and pronouncing them better.
I also have the opposite problem, whereby some of her very first words are still horrendously mispronounced and all attempts to modify them are to no avail, precisely because it's a "first word" - eg. monkey is ponti, yet she can say both Mummy and money (later words) perfectly.

I take heart to some extent that she is learning 2 languages, so has twice the vocab and 2 different sentence structures, but the consonant sounds in both languages are very similar thus I don't think that has anything to do with it.

Brangelina · 21/12/2007 23:09

Oh, is counting and colour recognition good then? t least I have no worries there then.

TheMNPeacekeepingForce · 21/12/2007 23:09

That does sound very similar Brangelina. Def the same with the earlier versus later learned words.
I know you're not really meant to correct but he actually seems to quite like it when I teach him the right way to say something. Sometimes he reverts to the 'old' way and smirks at me finding it very funny.

amytheearwaxbanisher · 21/12/2007 23:14

yes i think it is my ds can count to five but certainly doesnt know colours yet!i really find it helpful to go to his toddler group that way i can see oh x does that but ds cant,but ds does that and x cant,so i can see they all have there strenghts and develop differently

Brangelina · 21/12/2007 23:15

Sometimes I try to correct, either just by repeating what she says "normally" or occasionally repeating words back to her exaggerating the consonants, but she just laughs. I do things like MMMummmmy, mmmoney, mmmonkkkey and she'll repeat back mummy, money, PONTI!

Methinks she is taking the p%

gigglewitchyouamerrychristmas · 21/12/2007 23:19

don't confess to worrying, then. just ask for some 'direction' (or some such) to help him to develop word endings (or whatever) - if you really feel the need to go there

that idea of going to a playgroup and get some comparisons sounds like a great one! you will come out realising that you actually have a little genius who can count, name colours, say three words rather than one and point/grunt, etc etc....

TheMNPeacekeepingForce · 21/12/2007 23:20

My ds is so definitely taking the p* sometimes Brangelina! He insists on saying a couple of things 'wrongly' and laughing (in a cute way though).

He insisted on calling himself Nappypants instead of his real name for about a month - it was a nickname I'd occasionally called him and he found it hilarious to tell me that was his name not the real one.

He is making a lot of progress though now - longer words coming out ok e.g. upstairs/ downstairs but as you say too some of the earlier ' easier' ones are v garbled.

He just seems to find it hard to say quite a lot of things.

Amy - I get him pointing out colours endlessly (yellow there, pink there, yellow blue there - excitedly like it's the most important thing ever!) and I imagine your dc counts things all the time - swings and roundabouts isn't it.

madamez · 21/12/2007 23:21

SOunds pretty normal to me. My DS at 2 was calling helicopters 'etta-toctas' and cars 'dars'...he is 3 now and speaks pretty clearly. Most DC are on a sliding scale of intelligibility around the 18 months- 3 years old stage, so unless you are hearing yours as way behind other toddlers, don't worry about it.

LadyOfTheHollyAndTheIvy · 21/12/2007 23:25

DS1 is 2.5 and I understand most of what he is saying, DH can get some of it. My Mum understands quite a bit too.
He says about 3 words in a row which sound like proper words but they may be in a sentence which is garbled baby talk.
Counting is 'too, free, ive, six, too' and he calls himself 'say'.
Eggs are 'deekies' juice is 'doose' milk is 'muck' fish are 'ishies' etc etc. Nost things sound similar to what they are supposed to be but he does not say many words as they should be.
I have always talked to him and had 'coversations' with him from as soon as he was born so am not worried about it.
He questions things ie: why? wassat? whereseegone?
I usually know what he is after/is trying to say, even if I don't get it first time every time.
I wouldn't worry. It will soon all come splurging out!
Overnight DS could string together 3 word sentences/questions so I am guessing full on talking will come pretty much the same way.

TheMNPeacekeepingForce · 21/12/2007 23:25

Good idea but I hate parent and toddler groups! And ds isn't terribly keen either.

This is very useful just talking to you all about it as it gives me a much better idea.

Giggle thanks for your lovely post -it's easy to see what they can't do so well and worry and lose sight of the other stuff they can do well! He does seem a bright little chap and can do all sorts which in some ways might be what confuses me about his speech not being too good.

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