Do all 4 year olds enunciate correctly? Mine is recommend speech therapy :/

[sharesinNivea]

At Parent Evening last month the teacher recommended my son (born June 2009 and started Reception this September) requires a speech therapist as he can't pronounce some words. I asked if this was unusual and she replied that yes, they expect all 4 year olds to be able to enunciate everything clearly by this age. He has been banded with the children who do not have English as a first language because of it.

When I got home, it occurred to me that some of his classmates will have only just turned 4 and some have been 4 for longer than him, so surely his speech development can't be generalised?

He says things like 'trink'' instead of 'pink' and 'choffee chop' instead of coffee shop. He's fine in all other developmental areas.

He's my youngest and last baby so I've probably 'babied' his funny words too long, but is speech therapy really neccessary at this age do you think?

As I said, you cannot rely on the school test - you need a full hospital/health service screening test. And I am shocked - your midwife should have refferred you to the HV team who should have contacted you re the hearing test - you have been badly let down, and your son too.

Honestly, tiggytape, I think you've been lucky. I've always tried not to hide it - it's not some kind of dirty little secret after all, more analogous to using glasses if you're a bit short sighted. But people definitely made assumptions about my girls. DD1 took the 11+ at the same time DD3 started school and it was patently obvious that some parents were surprised that a sister of a child with a severe speech delay could pass it.

And the number of people who said "of course, my children spoke early.... but then I talk to them all the time." I have various rather childish responses lined up for this ("my children achieved level 6 in all their year 6 SATs.... but then I talk to them all the time", "oh, you mean I shouldn't have locked them up in the cupboard under the stairs a la Harry Potter") but I actually give a slightly sickly smile and say nothing.

Unfortunately I did have a negative initial reaction from DS teacher. I had written in his all about me pack about his issues and that he was receiving therapy and the day before he started his new therapist was due to go into school, we both thought it would be a great opportunity for her to chat about my DS before he started. It only led to her making assumptions though. I dropped him off on his first morning (feeling emotional already at my baby off to big school) and was pulled aside (before he had even walked in the door) and asked why I had not sent him to a language unit and she had decided already that he was going to have behaviour problems (something we had never experienced in pre-school). She has realised that this was not the case now an we have sorted it but as a teacher myself I was shocked at her reaction and pre-judgement.
Away sorry to go off topic, I am glad you have got the ball rolling OP and yes Speech therapy is really fun for the child and my dd also gets jealous when we DS has his sessions. I was told by his teacher also that it would be quicker to sort out the hearing test myself rather than wait for the school one as it is later in the year.

My ds is exactly the same age as yours. He is hard to understand when he is excited and speaking quickly because he says 'l' as 'y' which is pretty common. However we may seek private speech therapy because he also does not have the 'f' sound and I think he should be now. School dont seem worried but I hoped he'd be able to say it by now. Some words strangely he says - can say friend but not fire. Fire is bire. Fight is bite. The f sound is replaced with a b sound. Yet he can say f because if I ask what letter is this he can say it. So not sure why that's not translating into words!
L he can't say at all. It's very much 'y'. He has a slight tongue tie apparently, not sure if it's that.

Just picking up on the home birth and therefore no hearing test comment. Everybody should be offered a service from the Health Visitor (which includes the newborn hearing test in my area) regardless of place of birth. It sounds as though you were missed for some reason.

Not all areas offer a routine hearing test in reception. In my area it is only done if the parent identifies a concern on the health questionnaire.

I really wouldn't rely on the school hearing test.
Ds has glue ear, and is under ENT. He passed the school hearing test and had an ENT test in the same week to which the chap from ENT looked at the results and said "yuck"!

Newborn hearing test only picks up certain problems, so don't beat yourself up about that. It didn't pick up ds's glue ear either.

On the SALT, as others have said they're strange mispronunciations. Are you repeating mis-pronounced words to him? If so, stop it, and pronounce them properly. (ie. "I want a trink cup" "oh you want a pink cup"-don't get him to repeat it, just model how it should be pronounced) and I suspect he'll stop fairly quickly.

If not, then I would take it seriously. The "p" sound is a 2yo sound, so your ds is 2 years behind in that, so they are right to pick it up. Ds was 2 years behind when he started school, (k was his problem sound) and he's almost caught up now in year 2. Ch instead of sh is common at that age though-ds is just sorting that out.

But I would get him on the SALT and ENT list for checking. It's something that's much better done sooner rather than later.

Tosh. Many reception children can't make all sounds.
I am trying to get ds2 speech therapy but they keep fobbing me off, by telling me that.

It really shouldn't have to be so hard to get the help they need. If anyone would have listened to us when we first brought this up then DS may well have caught up by now or at the very least would be further along in this 'long journey' with speech therapy we are now being told he will be on. Instead we too were fobbed off with 'he's a boy', 'he's a second child' and things like that!
Others are right, it's great that the teachers have picked up on it and I agree that tr for p is an unusual substitution. Grab any help you can.

My DD had speech therapy at the beginning of reception. She'd been referred by her nursery teacher. She was a late talker and then mispronounced a lot of words when she did start talking. I had her hearing tested and it was fine.

The speech therapy was great (and free on the NHS) and after a few months of therapy and lots of work with me, she was completely fine. The therapist was really good and incorporated the therapy into games. She's in year 1 now and people, who don't know she had speech problems, comment on how well she speaks.

Another boy I know was referred, had an assessment and the parents were told that he wasn't bad enough to need it.

I'd take the speech therapy. It's easier to correct when they are young.

Easier to "get " those sounds now ( with a bit of speech work) , than when he is 7 or 8 and being teased.

Even at 4 he may be teased about sounding "babyish".

Speech therapy to learn missing sounds at 4 is work. My son worked very hard as a 4 year old to learn how to say g, c, v, f, and a few other sounds. He was willing to do the work ( he didn't always enjoy it) because he was aware that he didn't talk like the others and people didn't understand him and he couldn't say his friends names correctly and they were commenting on it. He stopped talking to most of the adults at preschool after one too many misunderstanding of what he had said.

I'd say accept the heads up and go for referral and assessment.

If it's offered just take it. It won't harm, and for many children it only takes a few speech therapy sessions for the child to get better. It's helpful to do this before they start learning phonics too as it can be harder for children to learn phonics if they can't pronounce the sound correctly.