My daughter had oral motor development issues. She had speech therapy from the age of 22 months to 33 months. She did great during that time and tested out of the program so was ineligible for further speech therapy. I can't help but notice that, while she speaks pretty well and and has a large vocabulary, there are a lot of words that she can not say properly. For instance, anything that starts with "sp" she says "f" instead of "sp". And if it starts with "st" she says "sn" instead of "st".
Does anybody know if this is common for a 38 month old? Should I call to try to get her more speech therapy? I just don't want her to regress.
Is she tongue tied? My nephews had the same problem and it turned out they were tongue tied.
MOM, this is like anything else, WORK WITH HER
Get some flash cards, and books
and start working on it with her.
Mothers are the first teachers.
Good luck
M
Hi Z.,
I am a Speech Language Pathologist and just want to let you know that at this age, those errors are not uncommon...in fact, developmentally, it can take MUCH longer for a child to produce s clusters (sp, st, sn...) so not to worry. And despite what people may tell you, do not force the issue. When she says it incorrectly, repeat what she has said properly (e.g., "Oh, I see the SNOW too. Where is the SPIDER?"...). Just model and praise any attempts at a correct production. Enjoy her!!
Also- if at any time you are still concerned and uneasy, please contact a local SLP for more advice or an evaluation (you seem to know the process). An easy mind can be worth gold!
Hi Z. there are some age appropriate misuse that children don't get until school age. You can call and have an eval it will ease your mind to have the professionals tell you what they believe. Good luck.
My son, who is 4, was not language delayed at all. He spoke very early (between 7 and 9 mos), words not babble. he spoke complete sentences by 2 and by 3 was talking like an adult. But he does similar things to your daughter. "th" is usually "f" sounding, so truck tends to be fruck. And there is another but I can't think of it now, another letter comes out as "l" but I can't remember which one. This is not that unusual. I would keep working on it with her yourself. Talk to her and keep up conversations where she is "forced" to repeat those sounds over and over. I don't think she's all that different from any other kid her age. No 3 yr old speaks totally clearly.
Hello Z.,
your school district and/or the speech therapist can tell you what sounds cannot properly make until they're 6 years old. I've seen the chart somewhere. ~Carmen~
