Child’s speech/accent has changed overnight

[Chilloutt]

I have a 5 year old daughter, who prior to this was speaking in mostly southern RP English. She does watch a lot of American TV shows, but her accent remain pretty consistent. She spoke quite early on too.

Suddenly (overnight!) she has now started to speak in an mixture accent ranging from southern to northern. I have a southern accent, and my partner is from the North of England, (northern accent) but we live in the midlands, and have always lived here since she was born. She is also struggling to pronounce certain words or is saying them incorrectly, and I’m not exactly sure whether this is normal or whether I should be concerned. I realise kids can pick up on accents based on where they are but this is has not been a gradual change, it’s been instant.

I just wanted to know whether this was something to flag to the GP, or if any parents had this happening to their children! I don’t want to be laughed out of the door but I cannot fathom how somebody’s accent can change overnight when it was the same for so many years!!

Any help would be appreciated thanks!

Yes I’d take to a GP right away.
Usually sudden speech changes are linked to a head injury.

I’d get her seen very quickly to be honest, could be a stroke - although unlikely

It’s been a couple of days now and behaviour wise she is completely normal, eating, talking etc it’s just the accent!! So puzzled.

I’ll definitely make an appointment tomorrow.

Yes, I would get this checked out. I saw a news story on a woman once who started talking in a French accent one day out of the blue (she was from Essex). It was the result of some kind of brain damage she didn't know she had.

what Does your daughter say when you ask her?

I’ve tried to gently correct her, and repeat after me which she does, but then she always reverts back to this funny little accent. It does make sense in a way as her father is northern and we live in the midlands, so this is why I was unsure about whether it was normal or not for it to change so quickly.

I don’t want to keep pestering her to talk as she normally
does as I don’t want her to become self conscious about it, but it’s really bothering me. Family members have also noticed this change and it’s becoming more pronounced by the day!!

Otherwise she’s behaving completely no big injuries or bumps as far as I’m aware.

I would probably have assumed they were just trying it out but reading other posts it seems gp is the way to go

It seems stuck now, and I know for sure she isn’t doing it
on purpose. Which is alarming to me.

I would definitely see a gp if you can. My son now 15 when he was 8 fell of play equipment at school hit his head and ended up talking with a southern Texas/American accent. We are Cornish. We took him to minor injuries and he had a mild concussion.

Hopefully all is well with your daughter.

Ahh my 3yo did this the other week. We are Yorkshire (Leeds) and he just came home from nursery with a Birmingham accent. It was awful. Took at least a week of us telling him and asking him to stop it. He's also picked up on nursery dialects (think more Leeds, sill-eh, funn-eh) but on reminder been able to squash it out.

No head injury, think he just likes picking up people's voices 🤣

My first thought was that her accent had changed because she is at school and has now got a local accent whereas before she had your southern accent.

@Brintons That would have been my original thought, but given how quickly it came on, I was completely stumped.

Their development in these early years does come on in leaps and bounds, they are picking up and learning so much. Theoretically it’s possible she’s just trying it out but I’m having to constantly correct her (which isn’t really fair but I’m doing it out of worry mainly!)

@SmallbutMighty1 I am hoping it’s not permanent, but it’s becoming stronger in the past day. With the exception of school, there is nobody else in our family that has the local accent. Dad’s side are all northern and my family are all southern. She sees them both on regular basis.

I don’t want the GP to laugh at me, and tell me to stop being ridiculous. Equally don’t want to waste an appointment!

Has she made a new friend at school and is copying this child's accent?

She has friends at school, it could be possible that she is copying them, but no new friends as far as I know. Given that term had ended as well so no exposure now for a little
while.

One of my DD's picked up the local accent, the other speaks like me, neither of speak like where I grew up or have ever lived oddly (we both speak RP English, im a south Londoner but lived in midlands!)

Definitely doctor. Especially for such a sudden change. Could be nothing and just peculiarities of childhood but better to be safe, good luck and hope they take it seriously and put your mind to ease x

Hi @Chilloutt , I'm experiencing a similar thing right now. How did this work out for you? TIA