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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

Can I have a bit of advice from any SALTs or similar about dummies and Dd's speech development, please?

20 replies

Olihan · 09/02/2008 20:55

Dd is 2.5, was quite late in starting to talk - only had about 10 words by 22 months then suddenly took off and now seems to be about average for her age, in terms of sentences, vocab, etc.

However, some of her pronounciation is a bit odd and I'm not sure whether it's normal or because she has a dummy A LOT.

The most noticable one is that she can't say 'L'. Eg, she says 'Oyiver' (Oliver), 'yeyyow' (yellow), 'yickoo' (little).

Is it down to the dummy being in the way so her tongue doesn't touch her hard palate and she doesn't know how to make the sound? Or is it a perfectly normal part of speech development?

OP posts:

moondog · 09/02/2008 20:57

Completely normal (I'm a salt)
A dummy won't make much difference either way despite what some people feel.
Recent research done on this.

Original poster

Olihan · 09/02/2008 21:02

Smashing, thank you . Was feeling a bit paranoid I was damaging her speech by not being stricter on dummy use.

OP posts:

moondog · 09/02/2008 21:02

Nah,forget it (whateveer HVs say)

saralou · 09/02/2008 21:08

i made ds1 give up his dummy for this reason... hasn't made a diference to his speech in that he still mispronounces most things... he's 3 in a couple of weeks and his speech is getting better slowly!

Lubyloo · 09/02/2008 21:12

Sorry to hijack but what is a SALT? Have seen it mentioned a few times and I don't know what it stands for!

CarGirl · 09/02/2008 21:13

Speech And Language Therapist

Original poster

Olihan · 09/02/2008 21:23

But Moondog, HV's are the fount of all knowledge, they speak only the (well researched, evidence based) truth, especially in matters pertaining to bfing.

Surely you know this?

OP posts:

Lubyloo · 09/02/2008 21:37

Thank you CarGirl! I guessed it was some sort of speech therapist but couldn't see how that fitted into SALT!

chipmonkey · 09/02/2008 22:10

And Moondog is the SALT of the Earth{grin]

Sparkletastic · 09/02/2008 22:15

Thanks for posting this Olihan - sooo useful. DD2 had 1st SALT appt this week - 21 mths and only has 6 words which aren't understandable to non-family. DD2 LURVES her dummy and I am wracked with guilt that I'm causing her to have speech delay by failing to tackle it. SALT was very kind (like Moondog) and reassuring that it wasn't the cause but I didn't truly believe her. Very comforting to read this!

Original poster

Olihan · 09/02/2008 22:28

Well, that's 2 more of us keeping the dummy copanies in business for a bit longer .

I'm not sure the dentist will be as understanding though!

OP posts:

maisy2 · 09/02/2008 22:36

hi there, what research says dummies do not impair language development? you try and speak with one in your mouth, it makes the tongue move differently.

I am a HV. GET RID OF THE DUMMMY (all OF THEM!) asap.

SaveScrabulous · 09/02/2008 22:46

so you know better than a SALT do you?

maisy2 · 09/02/2008 23:09

no I am not saying that, but All I am saying is stick a dummy in your mouth and see if you think it makes a difference. children who have a dummy can sometimes be too busy sucking on a dummy to speak, it takes effort to take a comfortable dummy out of a mouth to speak... so i don't understand how it would not delay speech if a child was not practicing words as much.
Obviously the recent research disagrees with me, I have not seen it so am unable to comment, this is why I wanted to know what it was.

However, in my humble experience as a HV I have found that prolonged use of dummies do cause speech problems. I have to add I have not practised as a HV for 1 and a half years.

The SALT will have seen recent research and will know if this is credible... but not all things researched are true..just look at the MMR controversy

juuule · 10/02/2008 10:50

Most of my children have had dummies for varying amounts of time.
3 have given me slight concerns about their speach.
One child didn't really speak until he was around 2.5y old. Understood everything but didn't really speak it back. No problems once he started talking. Gp said it wasn't unusual and that I shouldn't compare with older sibling who spoke very well at 19m (had a dummy).
Another (with dummy) had the same speech problems as one (without dummy). The problems resolved with time (around 3y for one and 5y for the other).
The other 6 had no notable speach problems.
Not scientific research (too small a sample).
I am not a HV or a SALT but thought that this might be helpful to someone.

juuule · 10/02/2008 10:51

Oh and some of them could speak quite fluently with the dummy in their mouth Much better than I ever could.

bubblagirl · 10/02/2008 10:59

my ds is speech delayed only has dummy for bed but SALT says l's they sometimes dont get until nearly 4 for some pronounciations sound snormal to me

also said speech ddelay isnt from having dummy

my ds cannot say alot of letters but you can unerstand what he's trying to say he is 2.7 and still very speech delayed although doing really well

chipmonkey · 10/02/2008 13:35

Dh's nephew had a speech problem. The HV berated my SIL for letting him have a dummy. The fact that his Dad had a slight speech impediment seemed to have completely bypassed her.

SaveScrabulous · 10/02/2008 14:44

Fair points Maisy - hope I didn't sound too stroppy and like I was leaping on you - ds was around and I didn't have time to do a lengthy reply!

Ds only has his at sleep time but it does make me wonder sometimes as his pronunciation is a bit dodgy. He also has slightly wonky front teeth but so does his dad and he never had a dummy so I think it's a hereditary thing.

beakysmum · 17/02/2008 21:03

Hi, am a SALT...

In SALT "speech" means the sounds used and "language" means the whole communication thing ie words, sentences, vocab, understanding etc etc. Sorry not v good decription, best I can do at this time of night!

Language skills start developing first and are very unlikely to be affected by dummy. Speech sounds develop later and concerns about these rarely start before 3+ years, but some speech sound probs may be related to dummy use. Often a big amount of hereditiy in speech AND language difficulties...

Hope that clarifies a bit

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