DC drops the ends of words - how to help

[FannyFanakapan]

I have a little one in my care. She is a little over 2 1/2. Reasonably good vocab and can make herself understood. However, she drops the ends of words eg, biscuit = "bis"; fish = "fi", peppa pig = "Pe Pi", dirty = "dir" and her siblings names are just the first syllable. She can say the missing sound - eg she can say "sh" but not fiSH.

Any advice on how we can encourage better speech? She's not been here long, and we are talking a lot to her, reading and encouraging speech, but I don't know if a referral to SALT would be premature at this point. (It will take some time to come through anyway)

She is speaking in short sentences, using correct language structure, so Im not worried about her language development per se. Receptive language slightly delayed, but we are getting there.

In what respect is she 'in your care?' Foster child, childminder? As that changes to what degree it is your problem to sort.

The vast majority if the time children who are mispronouncing or gettung things wrong will pick up the correct way if madelled by an adult enough; i.e 'bis' 'do you want a biscuit?' If you keep saying the words correctly they will usually follow.

(I work with teenagers with special needs and thar was my main strategy- if I knew for a fact that a student knew and could say the correct word then I went with cheerful non-understanding 'sorry what?' Until the correct word was used.

Sorry for the typos. On my phone, on a bus. :)

Has she had a hearing test? My baby has diagnosed hearing loss & one of the aspects we have already been advised of is that she will potentially not hear/pick up all sounds in a word hence hearing aids to try to correct.
SALT may also work because the hearing impairment team in our borough are v closely linked.
Might just be a normal developmental phase too in which case not responding until she says the words properly would also work. I do this with DD1 all the time. Water without a t etc

In what respect is she 'in your care?' Foster child, childminder? As that changes to what degree it is your problem to sort.

It really doesn't matter and is of no relevance - OP has asked for advice

thank you - we are foster carers. We shall persevere with talking to her - I just wondered if there were specific techniques I could use to encourage her...Im lucky I have 3 teens who actually come out of grunt mode to chat to her, so she gets lots and lots of attention and chatter!

WhetherOrNot, it absolutely does matter as the decision to access SALT support does not lie with a foster carer but social services.

I think 2.5 is a little early worry about that BUT I suggest you repeat the sentence / phase in which the incomplete word features to model the correct pronunciation.

Good luck. I have a huge amount if respect for the work that you do.

Final Consonant Deletion is an age appropriate speech error till about 3y3m, so not to worry about at this stage, modelling back correct production of the words will help, just slightly emphasise the correction with your tone of voice, but without breaking the natural flow of conversation and not putting any pressure to repeat, "yes, that's pepPA piG".

Referral to SALT might be needed for her receptive language though?

Thank you Crumbs, thats useful to know.