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Original poster

2yr old not saying consonants

19 replies

RubaiyatOfAnyone · 22/02/2022 22:00

My 2yr 3 month old is a late talker - she didn’t say anything until 2, and now she has about a dozen words/ sounds. I’m not worried about developmental delays, she’s bright and engaged, it’s just a late speech thing.

However, i’ve noticed she has trouble with a lot of beginning consonants - says “Eeze” for cheese or peas, “Izzah” for pizza, “ee” for me, etc.
she can say some - Mum and Da, brrm (car), so i don’t think it’s a physical inability.

Did anyone else’s dc have this sort of difficulty, and was there anything you did or said that helped them get the hang of it? I did briefly consult a SALT before unexpectedly getting a full-time job recently, and she mentioned that mask wearing makes following lip movement difficult for current toddlers which may play into it, but obviously she sees/hears us fine at home. How can i help her form the right sounds, or will this just come naturally if i wait?

OP posts:

Happycow · 22/02/2022 22:04

My DD is similar. She is very skmilar age and although she has a very wide vocabulary, lots of consonants are missing. But i have to say that there has been a big improvement over the last couple of months it is quite slow-going with the improvements. I also put it down tk the masks at nursery. At home i make a point of getting her to watch my mouth as u say new words, which does help.

princessrapunzel · 22/02/2022 22:23

My ds was the same at that age, i just kept repeating the words slowly and eventually he got the hang of it. I think it was just needing to practice the different sounds of the words. Or not quite hearing the sound right at first.
Even now at 4 hel sometimes miss the first letter off words when he first hears them. Or guess it.

grey12 · 22/02/2022 22:23

2 isn't a late talker mine started talking at 3 and is doing fine at school. 5 is the worrying one btw

You can always check in your local children centre, they have usually some sessions with a speech therapist and they can advise you

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2 year olds Behaviour & development Families General parenting

grey12 · 22/02/2022 22:24

Also when you're teaching them words it's important that they look at your mouth face them when reading, point at your mouth

mumofEandE · 22/02/2022 22:29

My DD was similar - unable to say 's' / sp at the start of words, so:

The Simpson's was The impsons

Snack was nack etc

she could say them in the middle of words though!
It didn't impact on her self confidence at all - she just got on with it - in her speech therapy group she stood out as she wasn't quiet at all!
She did speech therapy when she was about 3/4 and then grew out of it ( but we still call the Simpsons the impsons in our house!)

addictedtotheflats · 22/02/2022 22:39

My DS was the same when he started talking just before 2. Nack for snack, orr atchol for paw patrol 😂 and eye eeem for ice cream. Speech is sooo complex and as someone else mentioned getting her to watch your mouth after she has said it is a good idea. She will get there honestly it's taken my DS about 6 months to really improve and hes now almost 3.

AlwaysLatte · 22/02/2022 22:43

Maybe get her hearing checked. Upper frequency hearing loss can mean she might not hear the letters like 't' and 's'. My son had glue ear and wore a hearing aid for a while (we decided against the grommets). He grew out of it and spoke totally normally afterwards.

SuperSocks · 22/02/2022 22:45

Silly question, but does she have a dummy? Even if she just has it at night it's a good plan to get rid of it now. Dummies force the tongue into an unnatural place in the mouth which can become habit and make correct pronunciation harder.

GolfForBrains · 22/02/2022 22:51

DS did this - we were Ummy and Addy for ages. We had his hearing checked and he had glue ear in one but the other ear was fine and his hearing was good enough overall not to need action. SALT said not to worry. He just, eventually, got there. It was pre-masks so that wasn't a factor.

grey12 · 22/02/2022 23:01

About the hearing test: it doesn't always work btw 🤷🏻‍♀️ it depends on the collaboration of the child and the attitude of the doctor. DD is shy and she was terrified of the test!!! The doctor just didn't know how to create s rapport with a child at all (paediatric hospital!!!!!!! Wtf?!). Doctor ended up writing that she may have autism should have complained....... my bad.........

babybrain77 · 22/02/2022 23:06

My DS was very similar - only a few words at age 2 and then when he did start speaking, he really struggled with L and R sounds. We didn't do anything in particular other than sing lots of songs together with those sounds (think Row row your boat etc.). He's now just about to turn 3 and his speech is outstanding - he still slurs a little bit when he's really tired but he uses very complex language and structure (not a humble brag, just reassurance from someone who was a bit concerned a year ago about slow speech!)

Original poster

RubaiyatOfAnyone · 23/02/2022 21:43

Oh, thank you all, that’s all very reassuring. I will try and get her hearing checked, and make more effort at getting her to look at my mouth as I speak.
This is new ground for me because dd1 chattered on endlessly from 12 months on, and hasn’t stopped yet, so i never know where “normal” lies.
Thank you!

OP posts:

RandomMess · 23/02/2022 21:48

I would ask for a referral for hearing test and to speech therapist. The wait lists will likely be long and if she's cracked it in her own in the meantime you can cancel.

One of mine had glue ear
One had auditory processing problems with a distorted heating curve
One was "average"
One started at 9 months and had crystal clear speech and talking in long sentences by 18 months 😳

ffscovid · 23/02/2022 21:50

DS was like this. At 3 he would still say 'nack' instead of snack. Lots of corrections later, he eventually started saying snack correctly, but then started adding an 's' to all other words beginning with an 'N' sound so we had finger snails and he'd point out bird 'snests' in the trees, ask for a 'snife' and fork etc.

He got the hang of it by about 4-4.5.

Original poster

RubaiyatOfAnyone · 23/02/2022 22:02

@ffscovid that is brilliant and I am 100% going to refer to them as snails, snests and snives from now on.

OP posts:

RandomMess · 23/02/2022 22:06

We had Auntie Woo for Sue for many years 💕

ffscovid · 23/02/2022 22:13

@RubaiyatOfAnyone He's 10 now and we still call them finger snails 😂

greenheart86 · 08/03/2024 23:01

Hi OP can I ask how your little one is doing now? My son is 21 months and talking loads but really only with vowel sounds - he is deleting consonants from the start, middle and end of most words. Really worried so would love to hear how your little got on!

Original poster

RubaiyatOfAnyone · 09/03/2024 06:45

@greenheart86 she’s 4 now and her speech is mostly completely caught up.

no problems with the consonants i worries about at 2, they all appeared slowly. She currently has difficulty with starting L/R/W sounds and i sometimes have to ask what she means to work out what we’re talking about, but that seems fairly common with her peers at nursery.

nothing wrong with hearing, the sounds just took a bit longer for her to get the hang of. She got there in the end! I hope that’s reassuring - i know how worried i was when i first posted.

OP posts:

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