3 year old changes sounds to words.

[Oogledoogle]

Dd 3.5, wondering about her speech. I asked nursery and they said they haven't known her long enough to get a good picture.

My concern is she seemingly chooses her own sounds and puts them into words. For example she held up a Barbie and asked what's this? (She knows what it is, just likes to ask) I told her and she replied "Oh a Barbie" two seconds later she's calling it a "Bar-may" I remind her a few times and she says "Yes, Barbie." Then carries on playing calling it Bar-may.

She does this with all sounds and words, she shows she can say the word clearly and then chooses her own word to use instead.
Is this usual speech development?

I’m no expert but I expect this is a really normal way of just experimenting with sounds and also probably to see any reaction from anyone listening! She clearly knows it’s a Barbie and is just trying out a few alternatives. What are you worried about!l? That she doesn’t understand it is a Bar-bie? A hearing issue? I would think playing with words is very very normal and something even adults do tbh! X

Yes I think it's normal. Yesterday my dd was trying to get my son to say the word "balloon" (he struggles with the llll sound). And he started off with bayyyoon, then he made it "bannooon", the "banoonnyob" and a whole variety of random words with extra syllables.

Just enjoy it. Maybe where possible start turning it sound games - Barbie is hard to rhyme but you could say bubbly Barbie and then beautiful bubbly Barbie and so on.

Thank you, that's good to know!

When she was small she didn't start speaking for a really long time, due to COVID by the time we were offered speech therapy her words were really blossoming so I turned the speech therapy down. That's where my concerns come from, anything makes me wonder if I did the wrong thing turning it down! But glad to know this is normal!

My DD does this! She's a bit older than yours but she's done it for long time. She thinks it's funny and does it when she's playing. She also makes up nonsense names for her toys. It's never caused me any concern. Kids experiment with sounds all the time I assume!

Mine does this for a joke.

She's 5 now but has been doing it since around 3.

Says it incorrectly on purpose even when told different and has a good laugh to herself.

Obviously might be different in your case but my Daughter does the same :).

This is all very reassuring thank you!
She's currently teaching my slippers how to say "Bar-may" properly... So um.. think she's just doing it for a game 😂

The joys of parenting hey.

It depends if she's just being silly/ playing with words (which seems most likely), or whether she's actually changing her representation of the word in her head (i.e. she doesn't actually know the real word and thinks it's 'Bar-may')

You could try asking her what's the REAL word for this, and see if she knows it. 'You call it Bar-may, what does mummy call it?'

It might be that she still has a slight language delay from Covid and a couple of speech therapy sessions might be helpful before she starts school.

I don't know if it is a normal thing for some DCs (neither of mine did it), but it was certainly a specific question we were asked during the parent interview section of DD's ASD assessment 2 weeks ago. It stuck in my mind as it wasn't something I'd heard of before in relation to ASD. We answered 'no', so I'm afraid I don't know in what way it is significant, but even as a sign of ASD it would form just 1 tiny piece of the puzzle. Do you have other concerns? If not, I'd just put it down as a personal quirk. If yes, I'd be making a list of the behaviours to discuss with nursery.

Hm I asked her what is it really called and she said Bar-may. I asked but what does mummy call it and she looked confused, had a good think and said.. Bar-may? Now she's refusing to talk about it anymore and I think I've ruined her game.

My 4yo does this for certain words. Mflingo for flamingo and msketti for spaghetti. Started when he was about 3 and I wondered what was going on, but I can now tell he's just playing with words. He understands and can say the real words, just thinks his own are more fun.

Can she say /b/ in the middle of other words (e.g. baby or rabbit?)

50/50 really, she can say baby, Bobbie. Can't say rabbit, ribbit (the frog noise, I ran out of words)