DS 1 (almost 4) can't say his L's should I be worried about this?

[mabel1973]

When he says ' i did a wheelie' on his scooter, it comes out as 'I did a weewee'

when he says charlie and lola it comes out as charwie and wowa.

It didn't bother me a year or so ago, i thought it was something he would grow out of, i mentioned it to my HV then and she said not to worry unless he was still doing it when he starts scholl. Well he starts school in january. Whilst I am all for taking HV's advice with a pinch of salt, I am concerned that he might be developing a speech impediment.
I do correct him on it (but not religeously) and it is quite an effort for him to pronounce his 'L's' it just doesn't come naturally to him. Whereas DS2 who has just turned 2 can say his L's beautifully!
Should I be doing something about this? or will he just grow out of it eventually?

My ds 4.2 does this still but he substitutes a y for l - charlie and lola becomes charyee and yoya. Both are perfectly normal developmental substitutions and will work out in time in the majority of cases, the l sound is one of the last to come and it is within normal limits so long as it develops before the age of 6.

HTH

My nearly 6 year old has a similar issue, and I have to say I've never really worried about it. I just assume it's something he'll grow out of. He can't pronounce his S's, eg spot is 'fot', speed is 'feed', etc.

Actually now I think about it, recently he has made some improvement; he has started to make the s sound but it's still not clear - it sounds very like how Daffy Duck sounds (!), but it's more s than f, IYSWIM.

I have thought about taking him to see someone, but he's still quite young and I don't want to make him self conscious about it so I decided just to keep an eye on it but not worry yet.

Hopefully someone with more knowledge than me will come along in a moment!

thanks..i don't want to spend my life correcting him, i actually think it's quite sweet, but there comes a point where you start to think is he going to end up talking like Jonathan Ross .

In every other way he speaks brilliantly and is very articulate and confident, so I don't want to spoil that by appearing to criticise his speech.
I suppose it may improve once he starts school?

I think it's really sweet as well - although obviously you don't want them to do it forever, but it's such a cute little child thing. It's like when my ds1 stopped sucking his fingers, I was glad in a way as it showed he was growing up, but secretly a bit of me was going 'noooo, stay my little boy forever!'

Anyhoo, I think you're right about school helping, mine has just gone into year 1 and all of a sudden his speech is improving. I guess it just takes more time for some children, but as I said, I'm really not worried about it yet. If it's still there when he goes into seniors, well..!

I know lots of 5 and 6 year olds who can't do l's and then one day you are talking to them and they sound different and then you realise.

Ds still couldn't say "sch" when he started school at 5 and so he started "stoool", within a week he had worked out he had it wrong and practised really hard to say it right.