Is this normal re mispronunciation of words

[youbethemummylion]

My 4 nearly 5 year old is in Reception. He has always had some issues re mispronunciation of words for example he will say chose-ed rather than chosen and when he says nuggets it sounds very much like yuggets. It has become apparent since he has started bringing reading books home that this is hampering his reading.

For example today he was reading the word ran he spelled it out ruh-a-n then said van. I asked him to spell it again, again he said ruh-a-n van. I said no it cant be van because van starts with a vuh and this is a ruh he started getting upset saying that's what I said ruh-a-n van.

Now I do find this difficult because I have a hearing impairment so I do accept I may have misheard him but DS(7) said it did sound like he was saying van.

He also seems to struggle with other sounds for example whilst he knows what sound a t makes when he blends it into a word it seems to come out as a c.

Due to my hearing problem he had his hearing tested a few times and everytime has come back fine. Is this level of mispronunciation still expected in this age group or do I need to do something about it, if so what do I do?

hello, could it be an auditory discrimination type issue? I think that is what my ds has problems with - hearing the individual sounds in words. You mentioned t and c. My ds says chrain and chree for train and tree. He says the dr sound as Jr eg drum is jrum. I found out yesterday he thinks the word human is quman. It did seem to impact on his reading last year but he is getting better now. He is learning the correct sounds for words through his writing and spelling.

Have you spoken to the teacher about this? I would check with them how he pronounces his sounds.

In terms of hampering his reading, it's not too much of a problem if what he's saying is correct just being mispronounced. The fact that he seems to think he did say ran when you heard van suggests this might be the case. It'll probably hamper your understanding of his reading more than anything else. Might be a problem for writing though.

He does sound as though his pronunciation might be a little delayed.Possibly worth speaking to the teacher and asking whether she thinks a referal to a SALT might be worthwhile.

Hi - retired TA here -

I can understand this is frustrating and confusing, probrbly for both of you, if your hearing isn't 100%, and his pronunciation is also unreliable at times.

FIRSTLY - 'choose-ed' is NOT a problem, because he is applying his knowledge of 'past tense' words (though, obviously not knowing that's what it is) according to how the majority of words do end in '-ed'. So a child will also say 'run-ed', until he is mature enough to learn 'ran'; so don't worry about that aspect for now.

SECONDLY - the 'ran - van' problem. The sound 'r' should not be 'ruh' strictly speaking, but a purer 'rrr' (which, I agree unless you are Scottish, is a difficult sound!) Similarly, 'm' is not 'muh' but 'mmmm', and 's' is not 'suh' but 'ssss'. I think that Cbeebie 'Alphabats' has correct versions of Phonic sounds, and there are also web sites that do.

But, rather than CORRECT him when he says 'van', turn it around and ASK him what sound 'van' starts with. So, if you can avoid correcting him, but instead give him clues to lead him towards the correct answer, is probably better.

THIRDLY - An inexpensive and easy to use book, that can encourage children with reading, spelling and writing, and really help them to understand Phonics, is reviewed in the MN Book Reviews section. Just search ‘Phonics’.

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FOURTHLY - When I worked with less able Yr2 children, who were finding learning to read particularly difficult, we often used a SoundWorks kit, which consisted of a set of wooden letter blocks, which the child used to build simple words.? The theory was that, for some children, it is easier to SPELL words than READ them, which is a later stage.

It started with three-letter words, with a vowel in the middle - "a" glued onto a board.

The child then looked at the individual letter blocks, and was asked to make the word "c a t". Then he was asked, how do we change "c a t" into "h a t", which letter do we need to change? Then change "hat" into "ham" (with an emphasis on the "mmmm" sound).

Work slowly, and pronounce the sounds accurately and clearly. This approach was used with our Yr2 children who had been unable to make progress with more conventional methods of learning to read. It is rather time-consuming, and ideally needs resources to be made, but it does work very well.

So, if you can find or make suitable letters, and make a card with "a" glued in the middle, your child may enjoy building the words. Use letters that are occurring in words in the books he is bringing home, and then go on to make cards for the other vowels if it seems to work with "a".

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I am sorry this has turned into a lengthy answer, but just take from it any bits that seem relevant to your situation.

Good luck, and come back if I can help any more.

I will raise it with his teacher when he goes back to school. I asked before if his pronunciation was causing problems and she said no but this was early in the year before they started sending books home.

Ferguson that's great thanks, I will make a game for him so he can build words around the 'a' I think he would love that he enjoys words and letters just gets frustrated with making the sounds iyswim.

my daughter has a speech and language problem that means she has the right sound in her head but the wrong one comes out. so she might see th in a word and try to say it but will say t instead or when she is blending she can't physically get some sounds out at all. however she knows that she is saying a different sound to the one she wants to say.

personally I would contact a local private SALT by email or telephone and ask what they think. I spoke to one near us a few times on the phone before I actually made an appointment and she was extremely helpful.