Speech Issue? Opinions/experiences please

[BluLagoon]

My daughter (5 in a couple of weeks) has always had a slight lisp/issue with certain sounds. Was picked up at nursery and assessment done but just under the threshold for support. We are now in a new area and current nursery and noticed the same (she starts reception in September).

Ive contacted GP and referred to check hearing. Apparently I can self refer but when I tried to do this they wanted some school assessment first. I’m reluctant to wait another couple of terms all ready.

Her understanding, vocab, sentence structure is good but has issues with certain sounds eg , swimming misses off the first letter and sounds like ‘wimmin’. Also ‘face’ sounds like ‘fate’, ‘Rose’ becomes ‘road’. V sounds become ‘b’ eg. Van becomes ban.

Any speech language therapists or by parents with similar experience could advise if this is normal for her age or could she do with support?

Further assessment and support would be a good idea, IMO. Where the referral wants information from school first, can the current nursery provide that?

If you can afford it, you could get a screening done privately by a speech and language therapist. Then you know what your dealing with and what the likely course of action should be. The earlier the intervention the better really. If you are in Norfolk I can recommend a good SaLT