Speech and Language, help?!

[Littlemiss82]

Hi all,

My DD is 2.3 years old. She’s developing great, but there seems to be an issue with her speech. She knows lots of words and does put sentences together sometimes, however she is very difficult to understand.

We have noticed that rather than using her lips she is using her tongue, it looks as though her tongue hits off her front teeth. For example, she says Dinecone for pinecone and doom for book. If I get her to use her lips for B or P sounds she always seems to use her tongue. She is able to blow bubbles, use a straw and eat etc.

Does anyone know what this may be called or what I can do? I’m really worried.

Thanks
X

She sounds normal to me but if you're worried have a chat with a health visitor. Some sounds like p and s come later, around age 5. My 3 year old says Big for Pig, Ooons for spoons for example.

At 2y3m, there are lots of errors which are a typical part of developing speech.

The sound substitutions you have mentioned are atypical though. (Is it dook or doom for book btw?).

Can she copy a p or a b sound on its own (puh or buh)?

SLT here! This is completely normal. At 2, the focus is on building vocabulary and sentences. It's perfectly fine not to have all the sounds. We say as a rough guide that by 3 they should be understood by familiar adults most of the time and at 4 should be understood by unfamiliar adults most of the time. Sounds can develop up to 5/6 and still be in the normal range.

For now, just repeat back clearly e.g. yes that's a pinecone. Can you see another pinecone? By hearing you say the words, she will improve over time.

Also /p/ is not a later developing sound.

Cross post with PP. The errors your DD is making are atypical, as p and b are often fairly early sounds. But I still wouldn't worry about it this early. Give her another year/18m and then seek help if needed.

My daughter was the same and then suddenly her speech got a lot better, if your worried a health visitor might give some good advice.

Sorry book is dook. She can’t copy those sounds, she tries but she uses her tongue. Do you mean atypical in the autism sense?

Try not to worry. There's a speech sound chart you can look up which tells you the ages children develop certain sounds. My 5yo does have speech delay and is also partially deaf. The mistake I made was not repeating things back to her. I always believed that you shouldn't correct children and actually it would have been helpful for her to hear her tricky words repeatedly. It wasn't my fault though, it just would have helped.

No, atypical as in some speech errors are very typical (e.g. car is pronounced tar) and some are a bit more unusual (e.g. p pronounced as d).

If a child can copy the sound it is very likely to develop naturally, the errors resolve themselves.

I am also an SLT. As another SLT mentioned aboive, I want to reassure you and would not worry about speech sounds at this age. It is much more important she has lovely words like pinecone in her vocabulary, and she enjoys play and books and exploring the world etc.

Model the right sounds when she makes an error. Do this face to face so she can see your lips. Don't correct her, just respond to what she says in the flow of conversation.

You can also play "pop" with bubbles for lots of chances for her to see the /p/ sound.

No, not atypical in the autism sense. Atypical in that the sounds she finds harder are not the ones typically found harder. It is more common for 'back' sounds like k/g to be trickier e.g. book might be more like boot. B/p are usually easier to make because you can see how they are made better.

However if you came to see me at work (NHS SLT) I'd tell you your child seems to be doing great with her language. I'd be looking for sentences of 2-3 words and knowing words like pinecone is great! Carrying on chatting with her so she heard your language and gets practise talking will likely sort out the trickier sounds in time. For now, I wouldn't worry about trying to get her to copy you though, just have everyday conversations.

So when she says "dook", you say... "yeah, let's read the book. I love this book. This book is my favourite". Do this face to face so she cab see your b sound. There is no need or pressure for her to repeat the word correctly. She just needs to hear it and see it a few times, within the fun of the conversation.

Crossed post again with Winter who has given great advice.

Does she make any /p/ or /b/ sounds OP? ´peppa pig’? ´baby’?
Does she say /m/ as in ´mummy’?

There’s a things little ones do when they’re learning called ´consonant harmony’ - sometimes they will repeat the same consonant twice in a word even when that’s incorrect. ´dinecone’ could be an example of this. /n/ and /d/ are very similar - both made by touching the tip of your tongue to the ridge just behind your top teeth.
If she’s making /p/ and /b/ and /m/ sounds in other words I wouldn’t worry about it.
I’m not a SLT but I read a lot of language acquisition research for work.

Thank you @WinterSpringSummerorFall @BendingSpoons @Thewheelsfalloffthebus @MaverickSnoopy for your quick responses.

Is it normal at this age for the clarity of speech to be fairly poor. Sometimes she is so clear and sometimes when DD speaks we often find her hard to understand at times and sometimes she is still jargoning. It sounds like she’s having a conversation with us, but is unintelligible at times. I just don’t know what’s typical for a just turned 2 year old. She does know a lot of words. Great with describing and doing such as ‘can’t reach it’ and ‘another one’ for example.

With the usual caveat of not having seen your child... nothing you have said is of concern. The language, 2-3 words together, is lovely at this age. The jargoning remains typical and a child of 2 is normally 50% intelligible (roughly speaking).

Have you had the 2 yr development check with the HV? That might give you more reassurance.

I agree that everything sounds fine based on what you have said. Maybe ask about the 2 year check. This website also gives a rough guide of what to expect: ican.org.uk/i-cans-talking-point/parents/ages-and-stages/

Hi Everyone,

I posted the original thread. I just wanted to update and get some advice really. DD is now 2 1/2 and her speech is coming on. She is starting to say sentences and uses loads of words. However, clarity still isn’t great, she still doesn’t use p,m and b sounds correctly and still appears to use her to chime in the back of her teeth for example Mammy is ‘Nammy’ and Grandpa is ‘Granga’. Is this typical for her age still or should we have concerns?

´Nammy’ has a ´m’ sound in the middle. So it seems like she definitely can make that sound.
Sometimes kids keep incorrect pronunciations for ages - years even, when they happen in frequently used first words. So it might not be the case that your child can’t say/ isn’t noticing initial ´p’ ´b’ and ´m’ sounds, but rather that ´mammy’ is ´nammy’ and that’s just become the correct word for her. Listen and see if she says ´peppa pig’ ´mummy pig’ and ´baby Alexander’ correctly (or any other suitable characters in any book or cartoon that she knows and likes).

hi, thanks for replying, she says “Deppa Dig” for peppa pig and “doat” for boat. I thought she would have had this down by 2.5 x