Hello!
Looking for some reassurance, or maybe advice on how to deal with this issue.
My son (was 3 in September) has recently developed a bit of a stutter, as in he'll linger on some sounds and repeat the begining of words. Like "can I have some?" Becomes "ca-ca-can I have ssssssssome?"
That in itself doesn't worry me too much as I know it's fairly typical for toddlers around this age to stammer a bit as they go through developmental leaps etc, my daughter did a bit and she outgrew it.
The thing that's worrying me is that he has also developed (overnight) and odd way of pronouncing his L sounds. He clicks his tongue on the roof of his mouth (like if you're mimicking a horse galloping, if that makes sense) for any L sound, regardless of it's position in the word. He used to pronounce his L sounds correctly without any issues at all. Then one day he became a galloping horse!!
And because he seems to be trying so hard to get the click sound, he gets stuck on the word and takes ages. So "CLICKook mummy, it's char-CLICK-ie"
It's very frustrating to watch, and I worry that it's frustrating him too.
I have tried ignoring it and just repeating the word back to him correctly, I have tried asking him to say it again like "can you say 'look'?" And showing him how my mouth looks saying it, and I've tried making it a bit of a joke and getting him to copy me say it properly because "were not horses!!" (Which he found hilarious). He CAN say it properly but seems to take a lot of effort on his part so I'm worried this isn't just a silly game he's playing as he likes the feel or sound.
Does anyone have experience of similar??
Can anyone advise how to handle this?I'm really hoping it'll go away soon, but I'm worried the L sound thing is exacerbating the stammer thing, and vice versa.
Help a stressed out mumma feel better about it all pleaseeeee 😩😅