Dummies and speech

[schmarn]

I am in a bit of a quandary. My friend's son is 4 and a half years old and his parents are still content for him to have a dummy through the night and for an hour before bed and an hour in the morning. Despite repeated hints they seem to think there is no issue in letting him keep his dummy until he chooses to give it up. While I'm sure he will give it up at some point (one hopes before he starts school in September), it is ultimately their parenting decision and it's not my place to comment on it.

However ever since he started talking, he has had a notable lisp and he clearly has difficulty getting his tongue round certain sounds and words. Consequently, while his vocabulary is excellent and he is bright, his speech is noticeably poorer than other kids his age and his lisp shows no signs of improving.

I'm not a speech expert but I am concerned that there may be a connection between his poor speech and his dummy use but I am astounded that they do not appear to have at least considered this possible link.

In this current age of modern parenting where the accepted wisdom is to accept just about everything and not be judgmental, should I say something or just leave them to it? I am conscious that on a personal level, I find it astonishing that they allow a grown boy to walk around like a big baby but don't want my personal views to influence whether I should say something. Ultimately what is important here is the boy and it would terrible if he has to undergo speech therapy for reasons that are entirely avoidable.

Should I say something?

Many children still have difficulty pronouncing certain sounds well into primary school. Of itself I wouldn't consider that to be a cause for worry.

If he had the dummmy around the clock then maybe it could be a cause for concern. But your post suggests that most of his waking hours are dummy-free. In whcih case I don't think there's an issue.

He will have to be dummy-free at school. I have known children who gave the dummy to their parent when they lined up in the playground in the morning, and were given it back when they came out of school in the afternoon. As far as I am aware, they were all fine and spoke acceptably.

Does he talk with the dummy in his mouth?
Could you ask them to talk with a thick pen between their teeth as this will illustrate the problems with dummies and speech?

We had a child in pre school that came with a dummy day 1 he said something to me as soon as he said it I said very nicely to him that I could not understand him with the dummy in his mouth he soon left it on the side and forgot about it.

Dummys only affect speech if the child is talking with the dummy in his mouth.
DS1's speech therapist said that.
If the child only has the dummy at night then I'd say chances are that they are unrelated

You should mind your own business. His speech will not have been affected by the dummy, so don't tell the parents a whole pile of rubbish.

Journey it could be affeced by a dummy if he is going around talking with a dummy in his mouth.

My DD talks a bit like you describe - a lisp and difficulty making sounds for certain words. This is likely to do with her low muscle tone and hypermobility and I reckon nothing to do with the fact that she occasionally has a dummy in the day.

It may be that this little boy needs some help with his speech however and it is whether you feel you could address this or not?

Thanks for the advice. Yes he does talk with a dummy in his mouth but only for an hour before and after bed. When I am there I ask him to take it out (as he is very hard to understand) and he is fine with that but his parents don't seem to ask him.

No need to be defensive Journey, you're not a speech therapist and neither am I which is why I asked the broader question. Like I said, I don't know if it is caused by the dummy but it would appear to be an obvious starting point.