Is this "normal"? (speech)

[shinyhappypeople]

My 5-1/2 yo DD has trouble with pronouncing some sounds, especially "r" sounds. When she says "heart" it sounds identical to "hot." "Row, row, row your boat..." is "woe, woe, woe..." She also changes "L" sound to "R" sound about half the time.

 

Other than her pronunciation, her speech is great. She talks (and talks and talks) a lot, started talking at the normal age and is reading.

 

It's just this pronunciation that has thrown me for a loop.

 

Is this within the range of normal speech development? At what point should I be concerned and seek professional advice?

[MamaSheep]

It's a pretty common speech problem, and a lot of kids kind of grow out of it after a while. For some it's helpful to see a speech therapist for a little while, but it's still not something to worry over. One of my sisters did exactly the same thing when she was younger and had, I think, about three sessions with the speech therapist at school, and then walked around going "Tiger...grrrrrrrr...." for about three weeks. I remember it got annoying. I also remember teasing her about her pronunciation of "drawer" (which came out dwowa), which was probably also annoying. But it hasn't been an issue for her since then.

[stripe]

My understanding is that "r" is one of the hardest sounds to get.

[lulubelle]

My 6 year old does this. His name has two r's and his sister's name has two l's in it. I just had him evaluated because I did not see it changing at all. He is good for about 25 sessions of speech and started about 3 weeks ago. It is not going to be a quick fix with him. The therapist is working on L's right now. L in the beginning, middle and end of a word and just started L blends. She sends a worksheet home of words to practice. She suggests L rhymes and books with lots of L's in it. My son is also working on S sounds with her. She has not started any r's, but he is more aware of it too.

[merry gardens]

My understanding is that "r" is one of the hardest sounds to get.

:iagree: That's my understanding too. Here's a weblink to some speech therapy products developed just for "R" called The Entire World of R http://www.sayitright.org/EntireWorldofR.html

The op probably doesn't need to worry about it yet as her child is just 5 1/2, but she might want to check out that websight. There are also speech sound development charts with ranges of what's "normal" for letter sounds, like this http://www.talkingchild.com/speechchart.html. If she's still worried or if the problem persists, she can ask a speech therapist to evaluate her child.

 

What I'm going to mention next I hope does not cause any worry, but just something to be aware of, just in case. My son also had problems pronouncing various letter sounds and he was very difficult to understand. The first speech therapist from the school district assured me his speech was within the normal range. It was at the time, but his speech problems weren't simply caused immaturity and they didn't correct on their own. My son had problems distinguishing certain sounds from other similar sounds. If the op's child encounters problems with reading, it might be very helpful to evaluate the child's phonemic awareness. Speech and language therapists often can evaluate that too,

Edited June 22, 2010 by merry gardens

[gingersmom]

It may not be a problem but you should seek out a professional.

 

Your child is 5 1/2. It is summer time. By the time you get in to see someone your child may be 6-6 1/2.

 

A whole year may go by and what you thought your child would outgrow is now becoming an incorrect pronunciation that is now harder to remediate.

 

I had a lisp as a child (and being my name starts with an L it must have been interesting) and my mother said within several months of speech it was completely gone.

 

On the other hand I know a 14 year old who has a lisp that was never dealt with. I wince everytime I hear her speak. It would have been such a simple thing to deal with when she was a child.

[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

My almost 7 yodd does the "r" thing. My other dd sees a private ST so I asked her about it to see if I should take her in for an evaluation but she said not to worry yet.

[stripe]

I saw a chart of when certain sounds are normal to finish developing (i.e. when it becomes a problem), and "r" was one of the last. Around 8 or something. So to not have it at 5 1/2 is not late.

[shinyhappypeople]

Thanks, ladies :) I think I will just :chillpill: for now, but keep an eye on it just in case she has trouble outgrowing it.

[asta]

I disagree.

 

Rs and Ss are remediated with tongue placement on particular places on the palate. The longer you wait, the more difficult it is to fix. I started in kindergarten and was not finished until 4th or 5th grade. And that was with weekly, private therapy. Once I got my braces off in 9th grade, I had to have a "touch up" because my mouth was shaped differently.

 

My son had a noticeable lisp and r problems as soon as he was talking (18 months). I applied the same therapy that I had received (except I was able to do it all of his waking hours), and both were gone by three.

 

He now has a bit of an "odd" --I don't know what you'd call it -- tenor? -- if you really listen for it (I'm probably the only one who hears it, perhaps a speech therapist would) -- but it sounds more like he has a bit of distant British schooling than a repaired speech impediment.

 

 

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[Julie of KY]

two thoughts...

 

The longer you wait, the harder it is to remidiate.

 

My speech therapist says that if a child doesn't get an "r" by their seventh birthday, it is hard to deal with as they are older.

[texasmama]

R is a sound which comes in later than most of the others. This sounds within the norm to me. My 7 year old still has an R that is only partially "in".