Speech

[firewatch]

As you may be aware I have a 2 and 1/2 year old. Her speech is pretty good but shes struggling on some sounds how can I encourage her to form sounds correctly? We have stammers and speech problems in the family and im trying to help her out I want to take her back to playgroup after the holidays and be able to ask her teachers to help her with specific words. Any help gratefully received

[VHG]

My son had to have speech therapy when he was young, and I have to say the speech therapists were amazing.

They are very skillful and it is only when you watch them work you realise how complex speech and language is, and when it goes "wrong" what has to be done to teach it bit by bit.

It is not an easy job for an untrained person to "teach" someone to speak properly as it is all to do with the make up of words, the "sounds" of parts of words, the shape and movement of the mouth and tongue etc.

If you are that concerned go to your GP and try to get the doctor to get her to a speech therapist.

[EvianBaby]

If she uses a dummy, get rid of it.

[johnk]

At 2.5 she's only just started to learn correct pronunciation. I would read stories aloud to her and don't let her think there's a problem as this will only make it worse so relax a bit.

[firewatch]

Lol Evian, she used to have a dummy but we got rid of it at christmas. I read to her and ask her what things are on the page and get her comics with things for her to name in it, like birds bugs etc.

[EcclesCake]

Which sounds is she struggling with in particular?

I know a couple of SALTs and from what they have said some sounds do form later in a child's speech development.

I could ask them if you let me know what aspects you are concerned about.

[firewatch]

A the moment im finding b sounds are hard for her along with ps, thanks Eccles we all have various speech problems in our family, I stammer my sister gets muddled and my brother can form certain sounds due to hearing loss.

[EcclesCake]

How long has she been talking for?

Can you give me some examples of the words she is struggling with and if you can tell me how she's pronouncing them, ideally using a word that sounds similar to how she's saying it?

[Smowball]

actually, my son can't say "TH" , so for example the word "there" - he says "lere"(pronounced as lair). And yet with the word "thistle" he says "fistle", so he will substitute th with either an L or a F. And he is 12. He saw a speech therapist but because she understood everything he said, and tbh so do I, she said there was no need to do anything. The only time its a problem is the words three and free - he sats free for both of them!

[missmuppet]

Hi, try things like slowing down your speech so that she will hopefully copy you and not rush her talking. Also use lots of models and choices such as "do you mean yicken or chicken?", "is it a yat or a cat?".