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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

weally weally weally big problem with R pronunciation

15 replies

zanz1bar · 06/07/2009 21:05

Ds 4 1/2 is getting a really bad pronunciation problem with the letter R.
While we as besotted parents find it kinda cute, when or if should we take it a little more seriously?
Speech therapy?

OP posts:

mrsmaidamess · 06/07/2009 21:08

It's a bit early to be worrying about pronounciation just yet. I think if the problem is still there in a couple of years time, by 6 maybe then your child can be assessed. But usually it's only if other folk find it hard to understand them I think.

Littlefish · 06/07/2009 21:23

You need Moondog, she's a Speech & Language Therapist.

The only thing I can think of is to get him to practise saying "r" by putting his teeth together and making a long "rrrrrrrrr" sound, a bit like a dog (without the growling, if you see what I mean).

"w" uses a completely different mouth shape.

TitsalinaBumsquash · 06/07/2009 21:25

My DS does this, he is the same age, Moondog told me not to worry, im sure she will be along to to tell you the same thing, lol

word · 06/07/2009 21:27

Agree with MrsM. It's way too early now, so don't worry.

This chart should give you an idea of what they should be able to say when - note the letter "r" should be mastered by 7 years old!

hoochymama · 06/07/2009 21:33

yes, to repeat what others have said, don't worry, it's too early to think about 'r' at 4 1/2. If he was 7 and people couldn't understand what he was saying then it would be different.

NorbertDentressangle · 06/07/2009 21:33

DS (just 5) has this problem too.

When I mentioned it to his teacher she said that its nothing to worry about at this age providing that he can distinguish between a W and R in reading and writing eg. that he knows "run" begins with a R and not a W.

Mistymoo · 06/07/2009 21:34

My ds struggled with the letter "r" and said "l" instead. It was irritating to him because he couldn't say his name properly and so people would ask him his name and repeat it but with a "l" instead so it did make another name. He would get annoyed because he knew that they weren't saying his name properly and he thought he was!

Anyway it sorted itself out and we never really noticed when it happened. I did speak to HV and she said the same as WORD. I wouldn't worry.

Original poster

zanz1bar · 06/07/2009 21:35

He does have a bit of an overbite as well.
thanks for the advice, not worried at the moment but it is getting noticeably stronger.

OP posts:

clutteredup · 06/07/2009 22:44

My DS told me today thet he can now say the different sounds for th and f - and did so clearly- he is 8 and this is the first time he has succeeded - i thought maybe someone had been working on it with him at school but he said it just sort of cliked so there you are time is a great healer. It never really caused him a problem which is why no one did anything about it - so my advice is to let him grow out of it.

beesonmummyshead · 07/07/2009 13:11

my dd (under 2) is far too young to be worrying about this, but my sister (who is a keystage 1 teacher) tells me that loads of her school intake have problems with saying words beginning with "r".

She advises asking the child to smile (in a stupid grin like shape) and then say the word. Apparently it is easier to say your "r"'s when your face is contorted into a grin - however daft it might look

morningsun · 07/07/2009 18:46

clutteredup did you ever ask for a SALT opinion for him? ~ my ds does this he is 7

clutteredup · 08/07/2009 17:13

Sorry morning just seen your question - I am a bit of a bad mother and tend not to follow stuff up , take too long to get doctor's appointments etc - it was never flagged as a problem in school and it never seemed to bother him that much so didn't really worry - TBH these things IMO tend to be developmental and like when they wre potty trained, learned to walk and learned to read they all do it at their own pace and you have to let them grow out of it on their own before you really deem it to be a problem. i had a similar difficulty when I was little and hasd speech therapy at 5, it helped but I would probably have grown out of it soon after.

morningsun · 08/07/2009 17:47

the teacher mentioned it as it is affecting his spelling~he [sometimes] doesn't know which words are f and which are th so we are now modelling/correcting it.

becks57 · 08/07/2009 20:30

my daughter did exactly the same thing, but it all got sorted when she went to school and started to learn her phonetic alphabet, if you go to waterstones or elc, the sell jolly phonics and it helps you child to learn letters and pronounce them, when you get to the letter R you'll see what i mean, but you must start from book one and work your way through it

woodlands35 · 08/07/2009 20:45

my dd (3) has problems pronouncing her "s"
we met a friend in the park a few days ago & friend was throwing her dog a stick , my dd got very excited & shouted " throw the dick" friend collapsed on the grass in a heap laughing , now dd is making a special effort to pronounce her "s"
i reckon it is just some thing your little 1 will grow out of .

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