5 yo mixing words up

[YellowWiggle]

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this with their child and if it was a sign of anything or eventually settled?

my dd is on waiting list to be assessed as advised by /GP & school. She started reception in sept 23 and since starting school has developed a bit of a stammer/stumbling over her words, struggles to recall certain words and quite a lot of the time mixes her words up. This is all new, prior to school she was a good speaker and there was no speech delay as a toddler or anything.

examples of word mixing:
smell instead of find (“i want to smell this one” when reading a find it type book)
doctor instead of duck (pointing to a duck in a book)
batteries instead of butterflies
phone instead of moon

thanks

How knackered are they since starting school? Also are they finding it anxiety provoking?
I have trouble with finding the right words exactly as you described and it's so much worse when I'm chronically over tired or under mental stress such as when in a depressive episode of my bipolar. I have a strong family history of dyslexia and I possibly have mild symptoms myself but I don't know if it is related

she definitely has high-anxiety and yes v tired after school.
i think once we get through the waiting list they will assess her anxiety amongst other things.
i hadnt thought of dyslexia!

What’s she on a waiting list for? I would say Speech and Language therapy would be able to advise if this is an issue. They can look for word retrieval difficulties (also called word finding difficulties) and developmental language disorder (DLD).

Thank you.
She has been referred to paediatrian for the speech and high anxiety issues. Both are affecting her learning at school now.

It might not be linked to the dyslexia but my dyslexic tendency make some things around speech harder for me and when I'm tired. My dad has machine related deafness and when he is tired or ill his hearing is so much worse because for him hearing takes so much effort

My dyslexic tendency to me can mean that the sound I hear as the prominent sound isn't the same as what other people hear so I can mix up two seemingly unrelated words because in my ear their prominent sounds are similar. I think there might be some examples of this in your list. The CT of doctor is close to the CK in duck, ONE in phone and OON in the moon. As a child this is also could just be due to the language developing and if they are tired what they capable of is half a step behind what they can do when rested. Maybe try to make sure the starts of words are properly enunciated both to him and from him.

@Superscientist thank you that makes a lot of sense and is really helpful. Her teacher did say about her hearing and that she responds to the ends of words only / something along those lines. We have had her hearing checked which was all ok although they are going to retest again, in a few months to check for sure.