Why does DS change the way he pronounces words sometimes.

[tacal]

Hello, my DS has been referred to a speech therapist and also the Autism Team and other teams at a multi disciplinary clinic. He is 4 and his speech has come along really well over the past 6 months or so. There are just a few pronunciation problems but these are not unusual for a child his age. He has some echolalia.

But, sometimes he will go through periods of pronouncing words wrongly. He seems to change the er at the end of words to ow. eg Duster becomes Dustow. Puzzler (from number Jacks) becomes Puzzlow. And quite alot of other words will have an ow sound in them when they dont usually. He has not done this for a while (maybe 4 months) and now it has come back again.

Has anyone come across this type of speech problem? Do you think it is an ASD type behaviour or just my DS deciding he likes the ow sound?

Bit of both?

DS2 likes to play around with his voice, and speaks in quite a high pitched, squeaky way. I think it's an ASD / personality thing. I'd say don't correct, just model the correct pronunciation, eg, 'Yes that's right, DS, a duster ', rather than 'No, you mean a duster! '

Could be many reasons. My (much older) son does this too - and for him it is thought due to his poor auditory memory. He particulary misses middle sylables and gets the endings wrong, or uses the wrong initial consonent/digraph.

Thank you for all your replies. It is helpful to hear your experiences. I agree with you, Ellen and have not been telling him it is wrong. I just say the word correctly. I wonder if it could be anything to do with his auditory memory. I will keep an eye on this. Thank you magso.

tacal, I feel your pain. DD1 has quite extensive speech issues. DD2 has ?something going on.

Somehow I cope fine with deciphering DD1's speech.

The pedant in me itches like crazy with DD2's minor mispronounciations.

Hi Lougle, Do your DD's see a speech therapist and if so does it help? There are so many things about DS I dont understand at the moment. Hopefully it will all make sense to me one day.

DD1 goes to special school and they use a group therapy model, so they have a Speech and Language Therapist attached to the class who does a weekly or fortnightly Speech and Language session, then the class staff use the techniques and targets to continue the programme. The speech and language therapist then monitors until the next session.

It sounds naff but DD1 has made far more progress using that method than she ever did with 1:1 SALT because she is hugely motivated by other children and interacting with them. She couldn't give two hoots about the SALT she had before she started SS, so she would just follow her interests and the session would consist of the SALT trying to get her attention.