Clarity in Childhood Speech

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I would definately have her evaluated. My litte one started speech therapy at 3 and it has done wonders! It does not hurt to have her evaluated because if she does not need anything then great, but if she does it will help her to get an early start!

Good Luck!

I agree with Dawn's post.
It never hurts to follow your inner voice. You can ask her ped if they can refer you to a specialist, or you can see if your local school system can test her through Early Intervention. A lot of parents wait and they regret it in the end if there is something wrong and they ignore it. She may be just fine but, it wouldn't hurt to have her evaluated. Sounds like your very in tune with your daughter and this has concerned you. It's great that you have a friend who is an SLP but, your just bouncing questions off her. She isn't testing her. I'm sure she is a great source of knowledge and a good friend but, if you are feeling like this is a potential issue then take it a step further if nothing else to ease your concerns. Good luck!

my cousin is 5 and still says "d" instead of "th" as in udder instead of other. and my nephew who is 4 can't say spaggetti and a few other big words like that. but if you correct either boy they can in turn say it right if they try. i think at this point with them it's mostly habit and they have to try to break it. if you correct themeverytime nicely and gently theywill in turn start saying it right in the future. when my cousin would say udder i would say other and he would then repeat it the right way then we would move on. sometimes they dont even realize they are saying these things wrong because they do in fact have that sound to them when you think about it. i've learned some new words that my almost 7 year old never has been saying right but i didnt realize because she makes it sound very close like pumpkin. when she would sound it out to write it for the first time she would right punkin. then there was valentimes. it's cute but wrong. i corrected her and she figured it out. it's a learning process where in this case they have to relearn something which can take longer. but no i don't thinkshe is too young for this.

Your friend the speech pathologist is your best reference but at 3, they should not really know how to make the r, l, or th sound. My son doesn't and his preschool (who has a speech therapist) said he is compeletely on target for his speech. I would just speak to her as you normally would and encourage her to speak to you without making her self-concious about it. What I notice about my son is that he can hear the difference if I say "siwy" or "silly" but he can't make siwy into silly.

My MIL is a preschool teacher and she said those things usually work themselves out by the age of 5. If they don't then age 5 is an appropriate time to start speech therapy. Don't sweat it. My kid speaks pretty clearly but most kids I've seen her age don't. I recently met a 3.5 year old I couldn't understand AT ALL!!! Not a single word. All kids move at their own pace. You still have lots of time before you need to worry. She'll get it :)