Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Parenting

For free parenting resources please check out the Early Years Alliance's Family Corner.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

When should you start to be concerned about indistinct speech in a toddler?

66 replies

Pruni · 22/05/2006 20:34

DS is two and a half, and he's talking a lot. However, much of it is pretty indistinct. I can make out most of his meaning, but others can't, including his father. I only realise this when I have to translate for him to family members and I genuinely have no idea what's normal. His peers all seem to be way ahead but they are girls and I'm not worried about the stage he's at, just the slurriness of it.

Phoneme-wise, he is fine, and his grammar is coming on in leaps and bounds (spot the linguistics graduate) but it's such a mish-mash most of the time.

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

singyswife · 22/05/2006 20:37

Hi Is he an only child? I mean do you have anything to compare him to (I know you shouldnt do this but we all do it).

I wouldnt worry about it too much. What he is speaking now makes sense to you so it is obvious that he is picking up language. My daughters both spoke what we called gobbildigook for a few weeks before they spoke new sentences. They were speaking well but if they had learned new words or sentences then they spoke in strange language for a couple of weeks then spoke properly again. I really wouldnt worry his language will come in its own time.

kid · 22/05/2006 20:38

Does he go to nursery or playgroup yet? I think they come along so fast when they are around other children. If he can make all the sounds but doesn't use them, then thats less of a worry than if he couldn't make the sounds in isolation.

My nephew is 2.5 and my sister has to translate what he is saying although his speech is improving all the time.

KBear · 22/05/2006 20:40

My DS was the same as yours at 2.5. By 3 his speech was absolutely fine. I did see a speech therapist at 2.5 who said he didn't think there was problem, although his speech was garbled he was communicating and to come back in 6 months. 6 months later speech was much clearer. I did make a point of talking to him and letting him see my mouth moving IYKWIM, also encouraged him to slow down a bit and breathe!!

He's 4.5 now and has no problems at all.

HTH

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

Families General parenting

mizmiz · 22/05/2006 20:40

Pruni,he can't be fine phoneme wise it would seem then.

What are you saying?
He mumbles?
Am a salt btw.

Original poster

Pruni · 22/05/2006 20:42

He used to go to nursery but is now with me all day. He is on only child, yes, and my first, so I have no real idea.
He repeats, and as I said, he has a good grasp of grammar and everything, but slurs so much. Even his own name gets reduced to one syllable most of the time.
Easy to say he's a "lazy" speaker (dh is the same) but I would hate to be missing something.

OP posts:

mizmiz · 22/05/2006 20:45

Wouldn't worry at all
Noone would expect a child of this age to speak 'properly' (although some do.
Don't worry about it.
Make a mental note to take stock again in 6 mths.
He sounds like he's doing great.

Original poster

Pruni · 22/05/2006 20:45

Hi mizmiz [knowing wink]
I mean, he can form all the phonemes in English. THey don't always appear correctly in all environments but I am not concerned about him having physical production problems, if that makes sense. He was quite obviously tongue-tied as a baby and still is to some extent so as he's developed speech I've been keeping my ear out for them.

OP posts:

Original poster

Pruni · 22/05/2006 20:46

Very good to hear, thanks.

OP posts:

Rhubarb · 22/05/2006 20:48

Pruni, don't worry! Dd was a brilliant talker, chatted away at a very early age and was very advanced. But ds is the same age as yours and he is just as slow. I think it's because he's a boy and he's got 2 languages to contend with. He says a few understandable words in English and French, he can maybe say "Teddy cry" or "want drink". The other times he babbles away in some other language and I haven't a clue what he is saying. Dh can sometimes translate as can dd, but it can get very frustrating when he says something to me over and over and I just don't get it!

He understands a lot though, does yours? Ds also seems to have a funny accent, not British not French and this could be why I'm not understanding him, could be the same with yours?

MrsDoolittle · 22/05/2006 20:48

Dd has just gone too. She sounds similar to your little lad. In fact, I'd say she has her own language - she's so desperate to join in conversation. I'm not worried though, she has done everything later; sat up, crawled, walked, this is just another one of those things.

mizmiz · 22/05/2006 20:48

To be pedantic,there are therefore phonological issues (although as I said,entirely normal,nay expected) in child of this age,as the crux is whether phonemes are produced 'correctly' in word initial,word medial or word final situations.

See wot I mean??

Rhubarb · 22/05/2006 20:54

"To be pedantic,there are therefore phonological issues (although as I said,entirely normal,nay expected) in child of this age,as the crux is whether phonemes are produced 'correctly' in word initial,word medial or word final situations." - hark at you with your fancy words!

Original poster

Pruni · 22/05/2006 20:56

Yes mizmiz, I do. I'm honestly not worried about the fact that he sometimes says eg 'tat' instead of cat, because I know he can say /k/ and I know he's young yet. I'm more concerned that he telescopes utterances into about three syllables that I know he can say reasonably clearly.

Rhubarb, it's funny you should ask about accent - I'm Scottish and dh has a pretty standard English accent - and ds has, despite now being with me all day long, started to speak with this uber-BBC 1930s Bertie Wooster twang... "Hellay deddy", that sort of thing. HOW did that happen???????

OP posts:

mizmiz · 22/05/2006 21:00

Elided speech Pruni
Perfectly normal. A lot to say and he's only little with a teeny tiny mouth and muscles that get tired quickly..
Lol at Bertie Wooster stuff.

Ask him to say 'helicopter' or strawberry' or 'spaghetti'.
I have noted some v v funny variations of these over the years.

Original poster

Pruni · 22/05/2006 21:04

Brilliant, mizmiz, many thanks (was secretly hoping you'd be here tonight).
Am actually vv relieved as have been worrying on and off for a couple of months.
My god does he have a lot to say.....

OP posts:

SSSandy · 22/05/2006 21:22

Well you can't help being concerned about it, if it's noticable to you. I would get his hearing checked, the ear pressure - and personally - I would also get the opinion of a speech therapist. He's a bit young for a therapist to work with effectively though. Don't think they take children on much before 4.

Dd spoke unclearly too. She'd had a lot of ear infections. Gp referred dd to a specialist who decided to operate (insertion of small tubes in the ear-drum, fluid behind the ear sucked out, removal of polyps). After the operation, the surgeon told me the inner ear had bulged and was becoming malformed through the amount of blockage. Dd had not been hearing correctly because of this. She'd been hearing as if she were under water, so no wonder her speech was unclear.

Wish I had gotten onto it earlier. No harm in checking these things, once you know there is no organic cause, your mind is more at rest.

MrsDoolittle · 22/05/2006 21:26

I bet he doesn't call you "Nunny"!!

I started out as Mama but now I'm Nunny, even though she can say "Moo moo"!! [confused emoticon]

mizmiz · 22/05/2006 21:33

That's pretty normal too MrsD.

Original poster

Pruni · 22/05/2006 21:37

Sandy the hearing thing is interesting - I might follow it up. DS hasn't had repeated ear infections though - just two I think. He has his father's selective hearing but seems to hear well.

mizmiz have you tried 'apricot' as a test word?

Egg-cock. I'd like egg-cock pleeeze. Pleeeeeeeze, egg-COCK!!!

OP posts:

Original poster

Pruni · 22/05/2006 21:37

lol at "Nunny"

OP posts:

mizmiz · 22/05/2006 21:47

Pretty normal too Pruni.
Actually would be quite impressed at his semantics! Mnay kids of this age would just choose a generic term for all fruit in the same way as often anything four legged is a dog (or a 'gog')!
That wouldn't alarm me in the slightest.
Yes it's true that undiagnosed 'glue ear' can be a compounding factor in all sorts of cases (poor speech,attention problems,comprehension difficulties) but as I said earlier,the things you cite are normal in child of this age.

If the child was about 7,it would be different-a hearing test would be the first thing to sort out!

Original poster

Pruni · 22/05/2006 21:54

Blimey, really mizmiz? I'd say his vocabulary is bloody amazing then. I'm off to the G+T threads because he can differntiate a meerkat from a common-or-garden mongoose at twenty paces...

OP posts:

MrsBigD · 23/05/2006 18:23

wouldn't worry yet :) I worried myself because dd didn't seem to speak as well as e.g. our neighbours dd who is 3 months younger aged 3!

I asked my dad what I could to to encourage/aid etc as he does speech training... his reponses... patience

Now dd is 4.5 and at nursery and doesn't shut up LOL

Eulalia · 24/05/2006 09:02

dd is 4 and I still can't make out what she is saying a lot of the time. Other times she is quite clear so am not worrying. ds1 aged 6.10 has semantic pragmatic language disorder so have no-one to compare her with. I just know she is doing a lot more than he was at his age whereby he'd talk a lot of nonsense (well nonsense to me) and often just two word sentences.

Bozza · 24/05/2006 09:22

Yes DD (24 months) has a pretty poor pronunciation of strawberry. Not as polite as pruni's DS though. Although we get a hissed "pweez" we don't get a nice request.

Flip

1 2 3