DD3 says 'y' for 'l'. Do I ignore or interfere?

[Janni]

I tend towards the lackadaisical where child development is concerned but our DD (3.3) cannot say 'l'. It's endearing when she talks about her fyuffy byanket but I noticed today that her nursery worker was having trouble understanding her. She is just settling into nursery so it's important she can be understood.

Is this something she will just grow out of or should I be tackling it?

Not sure really, but my friends little girl who is now 5 is the same. She says Y for R. She talks about yainbows and gyeen and yed. AFAIK my friend hasn't doen anything with regard to speech therapy, but perhaps that is just becasue the school haven't said anything
If you are worried then ask them if they can give advice

my DS did the same for ages, he's only just recently started pronouncing his 'l's at the age of nearly 6. I did try and encourage him to practice saying 'l's instead of 'y's (showing him how to get his tongue to flick the roof of his mouth helped) and he seemed to grow out of it eventually so i wouldn't worry, i'm sure it's very common.

standard development of 'l' at front of word is around age 4 www.speech-language-therapy.com/Table4.htm

BUT a nursery worker having trouble understanding her is different from an inability to say 'l' .. that is a common thing ... if an experienced nursery worker can't understand your child I'd find out why (as a parent you will fill in pronounciation because you're used to the way she talks there may be more fundamental issues)

I would get her assessed by a SALT ...

Does her nursery have a visiting speech therapist that you could mention it to? Ours used to and i asked about my daughter then . (she does the same btw).
At the time (she was 3) i was told to leave it and see if she was still doing it when she started school as it could well sort itself out.
It didn't and i mentioned it again when dd saw the school nurse for general health check when she started school and was told that since it is quite a late sound to be 'in place' to leave it for now...and if she is still doing it in 6 months when she is 6 (she will be), then they will refer her to a speech therapist.
I know she will still be doing it because not only can she not say the sound well (she has improved quite a lot) but she also hears them wrong too.

DD (nearly 4) is the same although is getting better. Her nursery were worried about her (she also stammers sometimes) so referred her to Speech therapist.

We had the appointment last week, and she said that this is very common, they grow out of it, and its nothing to worry about. I think as long as you practise (in a gentle, every so often) way, saying your 'l's' then all will be well.

Thank you, all. Once I pointed out to her nursery worker that she says 'l' for 'y' it helped and the worker, absolutely lovely as she is, is not a native English speaker, which probably doesn't help in this situation.

I will speak to the nursery manager about whether I should do anything about speech therapy. Mind you, I noticed that SHE says 'thery' for very

Any other feedback appreciated!

It's normal and she will grow out of it (I'm a salt)
very common to mix what are known as 'liquids' which are 'l' 'r' 'w' and'y' (as heard in word 'yolk') which are all produced in nearly the smae place in the mouth.

It is also the reasons why Asians have trouble with 'l' and 'r' (hence 'flied lice' jokes)

moony .. how can I encourage DD (4 in May) to form the letter 'f'?

ds has troubled with Rs and Ls, says Ws instead for both (friends daughter Lara becomes Wawa.)
the R thing might be easier to understnad because we (having canadian accents) say our Rs differently than the scots round here.

Ask her if she can hear it first (receptive skills)
Put 'f' on one piece of paper and 'th' (I presume this is what she is saying).Accompany with a little picture of some sort. Key is to have a mental image to hook sound on,it's not reading.

Then say 'f' amd 'th' interchangeably and ask her to point to right one. When you feel she can hear difference (harded than it seems) encourage her to produce it by showing her you put yuor top teeth on your bottom lip. Say it's the sounds of a rabbit snuffling.

Personally however I wouldn't bother.It's normal to mix at this stage (you wouldn't beleive what my 3 year old comes out with) and 99% of stuff like this resolves itself with no interventin whatsoever.

I'd go so far as to say most SALT addressing this stuff is a criminal waste of resources. Personal opinion though.

Yes Sir,that all makes good sense.

I think if we were all issued with a copy of that table (Twig's ref) it would save a lot of grief. It is incredibly reassuring - I see DD has two years of being bery glad to watch a bideo before I even start to worry.

I'd agree with Moondog on the waste of resources - ime with dd there's no point getting a salt involved until much later when it really is a problem. My dd didn't need to go, her nursery really pushed for her to go, and I altho we played it really low key about the visit to the SALT, dd still picked up on, and was worried - so I wouldn't bother putting everyone through the hassle until later on. Just imho tho'

DS was eating yunch well into reception...then just suddenly naturally stopped.
And I notice LOTS of children struggling with f / th (Twig - imagine children saying one of the names in our family...one of us is frequently slightly mis-named!)

My friend's ds has exactly this speech pattern. It was flagged up by nursery as a big issue when he was 3 and he was assessed by a SALT. She told his parents that there was nothing to concern themselves with and that this is often one of the last remnants of what we consider to be toddler speech. If it has not disappeared by age 6, then further help will be given. He is 5.5 now and still has this speech pattern but no-one is concerned and the rest of his speech is absolutely fine.

I quite liked the yady on a yadder stage. He finally grew out of it at 4 1/4. I shouldn't panic.

We felt that if he could hear the difference he'd be ok. Still gets f and th mixed up but at last can say th! We copied him a few times to make sure he tried to correct us so that we knew he could hear the difference between y and l.(Not so sure with the f and th though - I have to get him to watch my lips)

Moondog, I quite agree with your assessment of early SALT intervention. They usually prescribe time in my experience. Why not let their precious time be spent where it is really needed. HV trying to send DS2 to SALT at 3 1/4 for not having every sounds sorted out. I don't want to waste SALT's time but HV is giving me Paddington's hard stare for not taking DS2 to see anyone for a year (at 3 1/4 I ask you!)

yeah .. think I'll leave her alone .. thanks moondog

My dd is the other way round but only with 2 words - she can't say yoghurt or yellow - they are loghurt and lellow but I think certainly 'yellow' is quite common ? She can say lots of other words that start with 'y'. SHe's 3.2 but am assuming she'll just get it at some point ?

Sorry another question for Moondog.. ( you still holding consultations on here )
DS1 is going to be 4 in April. He doesn't say S properly he seems to use the middle part of his tongue against the side of his teeth to make a thicker sound than a clear S. (does that make sense?) He is also missing the F and L sound.
I wasn't worried but the Nursery class teacher has refered us to SALT as there is a 20 month wait and although she isn't worried about it today, she has said that if he still has these problems in 20 months time when the appointment comes up it really would be an issue.

Any thoughts about this and how we can tackle it before the appointment. I would love to not have to go and see someone.

Well it's very reassuring to know that this and other sounds are commonly hard for children of her age. I'll return to my lackadaisical stance!

Thanks especially to Moondog for the professional input!

Wheelybug, for quite some time DD might have offered to get You a Wellow Logurt. I'm not utterly ignorant of phonetics (English degree) but am at a loss as to how those three sounds came out so different. Seems to have them sorted out now ( and a bit )

Jingley,it really isn't worth worrying about.The sound is being made in the right place-just needs some fine tuning.
If you are really keen,think up loads of things with 's' in (respectively)initial medial and final position in words, make pictures for them and play silly games with them

eg I spy
Snap
Hide & Seek

I wouldn't bother though meself.

HTH

HVs refer because
a. They know nowt about speech development
b. They are (like everyone else) 'covering thier backs'

If SALT managers put a fraction of their energy into training HVs on appropriate SALT referrals the world would be an infinitely better place.

dd was like this - which was a problem as her name begins with 'l' and there are 2 more 'l's in the middle

she's now 5 and can say 'l' perfectly

now 'sh' - hat's a different matter