When should boys outgrow "baby talk"?

[luvsJack]

Sounds like maybe things have changed a bit since youngest ds started kindergarten (he's 25 now), but he had problems with R, L and said some syllables backwards. (his best friend in preschool was Jennifer, he said it Jifener or elephant was ephanant)

Anyway, he began speech therapy in school in Kindergarten. By 2nd grade, we had taken him to a therapist because of some things going on with his bio-dad. The therapist told me to talk to his speech therapist and tell her that we wanted him moved out of speech during 3rd grade or we wanted a new therapist. We did and she got on the ball, started seeing ds every day and the problem was over by mid-3rd grade. R was the last issue.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

I would not waste time waiting. Why wait until they are older and it is harder to correct? Do it now and get it over with.

 

[Katy Belle]

I used to have a little chart that showed the ages for sounds... it seems for boys that the 'r' was old, like 8 or 9. My youngest DS is 9 now. When he was 6 and in First Grade his teacher felt that his speech was hurting his reading. He had issues with 'r' and a few more, perhaps about 4 sounds. We started speech therapy, once a week for 45 min with the therapist and he and I did homework at home daily. He was speaking nearly perfectly in 8 weeks! It did help his reading. Everyone was amazed that it worked so quickly. I'm so thankful we did it.

If its bugging you, get him tested.

Katy

 

[luvsJack]

Just wanted to add: the reason ds's therapist wanted us to say something to the speech therapist was because he felt that ds's speech issues could cause some problems at school with the other kids picking on him. He was also the smallest kid in his class so this added fuel to the fire.

If I were you, OP, I would go ahead and get it checked out. At the very least, speak to his dr. and see what he/she suggests.

 

[momof1princess]

OP, if it is concerning you, it's worth checking out. it was discovered when my DD was an infant that her frenulum (skin under tongue) was attached too close to the end of her tongue, which would cause her to have a speech impediment later on, so when she was 2, she had minor surgery to snip it. she was eating full meals the next day like nothing ever happened, lol, and chatters constantly at the age of 11. a mother's intuition should always be followed up on. good luck!

 

[castleview]

Talk to the speech pathologist at school. Your child probably doesn't qualify for speech therapy, but you can ask her what you can do to work with him at home. DD has the f/th problem and the r/w problems and we had her screened - I think you're entitled to that. By the way, she's fine now for the most part. DS4 has the r/w thing going on and every teacher friend of mine is saying to not worry. Thanks for asking this though - I appreciate all the mom's comments and Eeyore's butterfly's knowledge on this!