Pronounciation at 2.8

[Gargula]

Hello,
My DS is 2.8 and pretty bright (well - I think so! )
He's very chatty but his pronounciation is still pretty poor. I can understand almost everything but I've noticed that other adults and children have trouble.
Should I be concerned about this at all? His words are improving as time goes on but, as he goes to preschool in September, I'm a bit worried about how he'll get on.
Some examples of his words:
Playdough becomes "nayno" - even though he can say "p"
Water is "wawwer" - even though he can say "t"
Am wary of discussing this with HV as she's relatively dismissive and thinks I'm a loon.
Also, I've been using the correct pronounciation after he says something but this just means I'm repeating almost everything he says back to him - should I be more insistent on his repeating the correction pronounciation?

Oh good grief have I really mispelled pronunciation??

I don't think you should be too worried just yet. If you'd like him to speak more clearly, keep practising words like 'water' with him until he gets it right. They learn through repetition.

Don't worry about it. Get a book called 'Listen To Your Child' by some bloke I can't remember his name, think it's David something. Explains the actual process of how children learn to talk.

But the first words that are learnt by a child, are often mispronounced for a very long time, as they have to get out of the habit of pronouncing them that way. Words learnt later on, when their speech is better, are often pronounced correctly in the first place.

DD (just 3) is the same OP, she has great language skills (long sentences etc) but has trouble with a lot of the sounds. HV said she isn't worried but will refer her for SALT if I want.

I've read that it is very counterproductive to insist on correct pronunciation - it can be upsetting and make the child not want to talk. So if he says nayno, you say 'yes, lets play with the playdough!' (emphasise the important sounds) rather than 'no, it's not nayno, it's playdough'.

what's his hearing like? if YOU suggested playing with nayno, would he know what you meant? i.e. can he hear the difference between the correct and incorrect version?

e.g. my DD calls butterflies 'bdabdies' - obviously we still say butterflies, but if I say 'this is a bdabdy' she says 'no mummy, it's a bdabdy' because she realises that I said it wrong!

My 3.1 yr old also has some unclear sounds - we do a lot of practice in the mirror especially 'b' and 'L' sounds which she struggles with. Individually her words are ok but she often misses sounds out of words in her sentences. She has other difficulties with her fine motor skills however.

The main thing is that he is improving, Gargula and I bet you'll see him come on in leaps and bounds when he starts pre-school.

I can agree with that - DD just started preschool a few weeks back, only twice a week but her speech has improved. she still has physical difficulty making the sounds (or maybe she's just lazy? who knows!) but she can really hold a proper conversation now, it's great. I think having to talk to other children, who don't understand her like I do, has made her 'pull her socks up' so to speak, and make more effort.

does your DS see other children much? it may help in the same way. and I was worried about it too (other kids teasing etc) but it's been fine.

The book is by Davud Crystal and it's v good.

this is a good resource about speech intelligibility. In fact the whole website is good.

My DD2 sounds similar to others her age on here. She's 2.9. She still struggles with G and a few other things. Her speech is largely intelligible to us, less so to strangers, but getting there. (She has bilateral cochlear implants.)

Thankyou you are all wonderful - I must stop worrying! (Which is probably why my HV thinks I'm a loon in the first place)
MrsWobble that's very interesting about the first words being the ones that are pronounced incorrectly - I think that may well be true for DS - he says "astronaut" quite well but struggles with "water".
Mathsmadmummy i'll check what he says when I suggest playing with "nayno". We are out at groups all the time - which is probably why i'm so paranoid as other children seem to pronounce their words so well - but hopefully preschool will bring him on.

Also completely agree with MrsWobble. DD certainly continued to pronounce early words in the same way for a long time. She's now just finishing reception and is very bright, so I really wouldn't worry.