What are difficult letters for Toddlers to pronounce?

[Jenn Lynn]

DD has trouble with the letter "F" especially if it is at the beginning of a word. She substitutes an "S" for the "F", but if it is in a word like Puffy she usually says it fine.

Is this something that they usually out grow?

Thanks!

 

[BWVDenise]

My 1st ds has "th" difficulty, my dd has "s" issues, and my 2nd ds doesn't do "r" very well. We've been translating for relatives for years! LOL! How old is your dd?

 

[Jenn Lynn]

DD is 28 months.

We have to interpret for our DD also. Sometimes she tries to get so much out that she talks really fast!

I'm not really sure where she should be speech wise for her age. She talks in full sentences, but still refers to herself in the third person. I have been trying to work on that one although I KNOW she knows MINE.

Does anyone know where, generally, children should be speech wise around the age of 2?
Thanks!

 

[bananiem]

Yep! Isn't it wierd how they can say it fine in the middle of the word but not the beginning? R's, th's, and just plain t's can be a problem too. Around here they "pre-kindergarten" test kids between 3 and 5 for any motor, speech, vision, etc. They try to catch kids early and give them the appropriate therapy before they even hit school. I know several friends' kids who I thought would get referred and even they passed the test and by 1st grade I could understand them fine! So apparently even if I can't understand them at 3 or 4 they're still OK!
Be sure to videotape some of Avery's mispronunciations. My kids get a kick out of watching those tapes now. And we still eat "Faffles and See-pup" instead of waffles and syrup at our house.

 

[Jenn Lynn]

The one word that she does not say correctly at all is Yogurt. she says Nock pronounced NO-K(with a hard K.) I have no idea where she got this!

She says Waffles fine, but Frog is Srog.

 

[amid chaos]

Norah had a problem with Tr...she replaced it with an F...so truck became............ .

she's going to love that I shared this with the dis.

 

[moinab]

28 months? Relax! My DS didn't even start talking until he was 2.5. He's 3.25 now and just getting going on sentences. His pediatrician did want me to take him for speech therapy, just in case, but I was confidant he was right where he needed to be. Now, he's going through his language explosion, improving by leaps and bounds every day, without the aid of therapy or any extra effort on my part.

 

[CamColt]

Both of my DS go to speech therapy. DS #1 had trouble with certain sounds(he would say w for f), whereas DS #2, had a speech delay all together.
DS#2 started with early intervention when he was 2 and his therapist gave me a chart of what sounds kids should be able to pronounce at what age level. I just dug it out and it looks like "normal" deveolpment of the sound f should be anywhere between 2 1/2 - 4.

If you are concerned look into getting her evaluated with EI. We didnt do it with DS # 1 becaue we thought he would just outgrow it. Looking back he would be so much better off if we had started him in therapy when he was 2-3 instead of waiting until he started Kindergarten at almost 5(we did start looking into it about 6 months earlier but it took that long to get all the evaluations and stuff done). We did it with DS #2 and found out he was worse off than we thought(16 month level at 26 months old). But with EI, and now with the public school's therapist, he has made great improvements.

 

[mickeyboat]

Both of my kids had trouble with the letter F. I worked for about two weeks with DD4 when she was about 3 1/2 and she says it well now. She used to substitute "T". DD3 still substitutes "S" for F. But I am not worried. She will learn it correctly soon. I think you would know whether or not your child has a real speech problem. If you're not sure, talk to your pediatrician, he or she should be able to direct you to the resources your child needs.

Denae

 

[Lewski709]

My 4.5 yr old still has a hard time with R. He weads instead of reads. Used to have truble with L's too, but we cowwected that awhile ago. I think S can cause some issues as well.

 

[CamColt]

Originally posted by Lewski709
My 4.5 yr old still has a hard time with R. He weads instead of reads. Used to have truble with L's too, but we cowwected that awhile ago. I think S can cause some issues as well.

According to the chart I have r's are from ages 3-6.

 

[oogieboogie]

DS still says I come instead of I can and he's 5. I wouldn't worry about it, she'll grow out of it. 3yr old DS until last week said Orangejet for orange. He finally started saying it correctly two days ago.

 

[Jenn Lynn]

Thanks! Don't worry! I am not worried about it. I just was curious about what was "average" at this age.

We said the alphabet a little while ago and she said "F" fine. Who knows!

 

[EdiePA]

My son substituted the "F" sound for "TR", so truck was really a problem -- especially when he screamed it outloud in a Dairy Queen at age 2!!

One of the last sounds is the hard "R" -- like in girl. I used to work in a language development pre-school and this one little 5-year-old was all done except for his hard R sound. I kept working with him on the word 'girl' and finally he looked at me and said, "Can't I just call them 'chicks'?"

I can second checking with Early Intervention -- if there isn't a problem, they'll tell you and you can rest easy. Or you can get the help you need.

Edie

 

[Jenn Lynn]

Originally posted by EdiePA

One of the last sounds is the hard "R" -- like in girl. I used to work in a language development pre-school and this one little 5-year-old was all done except for his hard R sound. I kept working with him on the word 'girl' and finally he looked at me and said, "Can't I just call them 'chicks'?"

LOL!

 

[Lewski709]

Boy, kids sure are creative. That was a really cute response, Edie.

 

[mudnuri]

My DD6 went to Kindergarten when she was 4 (October birthday)...after the second week of school, I received a call from her K teacher..(same teacher DD7 had, know her quite well etc.)...she explained she wanted to have DD6 evaluated by the speech therapist, as some letters were off.

John- turned into Zohn...Lap was Yap...

Speech Therapist said it was age related, and development, not a speech "problem"..and that she would outgrow it...she however DID begin 3x per week therapy at school..usually 15-20 minutes at a time, because in this school, they start reading in Kindergartin, and she would have a VERY hard time keeping up if she could not pronounce the words correctly. She continued working with therapist all year...and now pronounces everything correctly.

Have a friend with a 4year old DS, who has been in the School Districts EI program since he was 2 1/2 for speech problems. Working GREAT!

Brandy

 

[faithinkarma]

I worked with small children for years. One word I noticed they often had difficulty with was YELLOW. They could say yell and oh, but if they put them together it consistantly came out as LELLOW.

One of my favorite memories is of being in my car with one toddler. The radio was on and Donovan was singing. After a moment this tiny voice came from the carseat behind me " That's my favorite song, MELLOW LELLOW "