Child with very sing-song voice - should I be concerned?

[flighttattendant]

Hi all,

I've been a bit worried for a while now about ds2. He seems fairly 'normal' in many ways but his voice is really peculiar.

He has just turned 3. His speech and language are fairly good but the intonation is odd. Everything he says - actually nearly everything, not just here and there - he says it as though the final word has two tones - about a third apart.

If you have ever watched Bagpuss, it's like the sad little story read by a church mouse or something.

He's been doing it for a few months now but it seems to be getting worse. It's almost a monotone but with two separate notes - a duotone? So the sentence will start fairly ordinary but kind of on a single note, iyswim, and then the last word will go 'do-oh' with a drop of a major third.

I have had previous minor concerns re autism but had got past those - lack of either type of pointing until beyond 18mo, etc. He does that Ok now.

He seems OK socially too. Could it just be a toddler thing?

Any experiences or thoughts welcomed - thanks.

Are you a particularly musical person?
What do other people who listen to him regularly think?

How interesting. Has anyone else commented or just you? It could just be something he does for his own amusement which has become a habit. It could be that he's exaggerating an intonation he hears around him. (I always wondered why a friend of mine spoke the way she did until I met her mother... who is French) Do you sing songs or chant rhymes together? Sometimes that can be a good way to modulate the speaking voice.

Thankyou - all good suggestions. I am very musical (or so I am told!) and he has been actually singing in tune since he was a few weeks old...it sounds weird but he had a musical cot thing and it played this little slow tune, and he was just lying there humming along to it, exactly the right note, I was like

But I did post this on the SN board as well, and have had some replies indicating it may be a sign he has some degree of autism. So I am looking into that again.

He seems very happy which is my benchmark for 'things are Ok' so not too upset about it atm though nothing is so far definite.

Question for the OP - did this bizzare intonation in your son's speech correct itself? Did he go on to recieve any kind of diagnosis?

We've noticed something very similar in our daughter, it's quite concerning.

Adults around me said I had this as a child. Though I had lived in 3 different countries by that point and had parents of different nationalities and in one of the countries I'd lived in particular, the accent can sound a bit singy.
My mother herself is from that country and I think I followed her speech patterns and intonations a bit. We also sang a lot during those times and I was told by my choir teachers etc that i was a natural.
I did outgrow the singing voice, especially when puberty began to occur (im female btw).
I think your kid will outgrow the singing voice.