Toddler saying 'd' instead of 'b'

[fishtankbrain]

I'm sure it's nothing to worry about but I was wondering whether anyone else had come across this? My 16mo DS has quite a large vocab (about 50 words), but says 'd' instead of 'b' for any word with a 'b' in ("dus" instead of "bus", "dye-dye" etc).

I am now trying to enuciate my bs very clearly ("ooh look, a bbbbbbbbus!") though it doesn't seem to make any difference. I assume it's just something he'll grow out of by the time he's a dig doy...

Thanks!

My daughter used to say decause instead of because. Cudding for pudding, gat for cat, grew out of it all in the first term of pre-school when the need to be understood by anyone but me became important.

I think they just like some sounds more than others, either the way their tongue feels or a more satifactory noise is made. Eg my DD preferred to voice her p, t and k much of the time - can only assume they weren't noisy enough for her.

Important to her I must stress, it's up to them really.

I think it is just something they grow out of. He is still very young for talking so I wouldn't worry about it just yet. I don't think either of mine were saying much at that age, dd2 didn't talk until nearly 2 as she couldn't a word in edgewise with dd1 talking so much.

My DS muddled up d/b/g when he was little. He soon stopped (when it was pointed out to him at about 3?) and speaks very clearly now!

It is important that they can hear the difference between the sounds for learning to read / spell, but I wouldn't start worrying yet

DS is older but has started replacing d sounds with some of the right ones now. He started everything with a d for a long time (dye, dall etc) , but now uses b sounds, although he can't manage 'c' so still says 'dar' etc.

I worried that his initial preference for a sound would stick, but once he figured out he could do 'b' he swapped pretty quickly.

Thanks Buckets (or Duckets as you would be known in my household...)

Am clearly worrying too much over PFB, but nice to know that it's a normal thing - your explanation of them liking some letters more than others is very sensible.

Cheers everyone else - MN is truly a wonderful resource for the most obscure questions...

It is absolutely normal and I wouldn't try to correct it - yet.
However I have found that many children start school with little speech quirks that probably sounded cute and their parents have never corrected. It can make reading difficult.
When my DS2 was four he used to say V instead of TH and I made a game of encouraging him to say words beginning with th and sticking out his tongue. He remembers it now (he's 11) and recently mentioned that his friend speaks badly because , in my son's opinion, "x's mum never bothered to teach him the correct way to speak."

My ds does this too.

Is quite funny to see the looks on peoples' faces when he waves and says 'die! die!'

DS2 (17mo) does this. I must admit, I think it is cute and can't bear to correct him.

inthesticks - that's interesting. I found the opposite with DS1 (4.2). The phonics he did at nursery last year pretty much seemed to iron out his mispronunciations. For example, when he did 'ar' he stopped saying 'pork' for park.

Actually DD is 6 and still says pushion for cushion simply because we never pointed it out.

My DS (18 months) has been doing this with die die for about 3 months and it has taken this thread to make me realise that this is actualy quite amusing!! Very useful send off for MIL?!!