3.5 Year Old Unclear Speech

[FreddieFoxtrot]

Hi ladies, looking for a little advice.

So my 3.5 year old attends preschool. He's a reserved little boy and can take time to open up to new people. He's largely been doing really well at school, however his teacher has flagged that his speech can sometimes be a little unclear to those who don't know him well. She's stopped short of saying he has a speech delay, but has recommended we get an assessment to "rule anything out."

There definitely isn't a problem with his vocabulary, ability to form sentences or comprehension. He misprouncounces certain words and there are some grammatical errors, but nothing out of the ordinary for children of his age.

People familiar to him mostly understand his speech, but I have noticed that he mumbles his words when he's not confident in a given situation, or with a new person. Or if he's tired.

My husband is adamant that this is directly related to his reserved nature, and is reticent to get professionals involved at this stage. He feels it could make this into an issue when it doesn't need to be, and that it will rectify itself in time.

Personally, I'm in two minds. On one hand I'd like to get any potential problem ruled out with an assessment, but on the other hand I don't want to unnecessarily create a problem that could solve itself in time.

Has this happened to anyone before? Any thoughts/advice

Have you had hearing checked recently? This is what was/is causing my son's speech pronunciation errors. He has glue ear and excess wax so he is hearing the sounds incorrectly and therefore reproducing them incorrectly. For example Fish to him sounds like Sish so this is what he says.

Night be worth getting a hearing test booked to rule it out at least.

I agree with getting an ear test. It’s the first port of call anyway. My youngest child has a diagnosis of autism and the first thing they did was an ear test. NOT saying I think it sounds like your child is autistic. But if he can’t hear well, he won’t necessarily have the confidence to speak. He might qualify for some speech therapy to help him form the words.

Check his ears but it won’t do any harm to get on the waiting list for SALT too, I was concerned about my youngest as his vocabulary seemed so limited at 3. It took 15 months for his first appointment by which time his language skill were thankfully coming along quite nicely so he was checked then discharged with the option of rejoining the system if I had any concerns within six months. Since then he’s come on in leaps and bounds and I think he should be ok in time to start school. Because it takes so long to speak to anyone I would suggest always being on the list just in case you have further concerns later on.

People struggled to understand my daughter in preschool. Hearing checked - all fine and saw speech and language a couple of times which continued when starting school- this was 6 monthly appointments. I feel learning to read with phonics really helped her speech and absolutely no problems now.

I would get his hearing checked and added to SLT waiting list. If he has a leap in his speech then you can always cancel.

Your husband could be right but what if it's the opposite and he lacks confidence because he's not easily understood by others ?

My son had speech therapy as a preschooler and no recollection of it. His speech was considered fine by age 5 and his school offered nurture groups to help with his social confidence. In year 3 he had the lead role in a school play which was unthinkable and fantastic

I'm a paediatric speech and language therapist... AMA! www.mumsnet.com/Talk/parenting/4730400-im-a-paediatric-speech-and-language-therapist-ama

This is a current thread if it's any help