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Forum -> Parenting our children -> Toddlers
Not saying certain sounds -cause for concern?



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amother
Mistyrose


 

Post Mon, Sep 19 2016, 3:44 pm
2.5 year old dc doesn't seem to be able to say certain sounds. For example, the hebrew "ch" sound in Challah and Chayala, or the /r/ sound in any form or dialect.


Is this something I need to be concerned about, meaning signing up dc to speech therapy or do I just let time resolve it?

My older kids were early and fluent "speakers".

(This child has had issues with tongue tie that needed to be resnipped, yet I am still not sure it is perfect now.)

Advice and experience with this is appreciated.
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cinnabuns




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 19 2016, 4:25 pm
Doesn't hurt to get evaluated, but it doesn't sound like 'enough' for therapy.. your best bet might be to pay a speech therapist out of pocket for 1 session so they can either tell you if he does need full therapy, or they can give you word exercises to do with dc.

But really, nothing to be too worried about. 'g' and 'ch' both come from the throat, dc might just need some practice... And r is very hard!! It might just come with practice.
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amother
Beige


 

Post Mon, Sep 19 2016, 4:29 pm
My daughter couldn't say many sounds until finally at 7, everything clicked. Because I hschooled at that age, I ignored the comments to get her speech therapy. I looked around at everyone I knew or came into contact with throughout the day, and virtually everyone could speak properly. Kids develop on their own timeline. DD is now extremely competent in English and in a lovely seminary. Please don't worry.
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amother
Smokey


 

Post Mon, Sep 19 2016, 9:09 pm
I am not a slp, but I am an experienced preschool teacher, with a 2.5 yr old who does get speech therapy because she doesn't say certain sounds. As her therapist has explained to me, different sounds are expected at different ages, my dd cannot say "h", "m", and sporadically has trouble with "n". Those are sounds that are expected at her age. They are also working on her saying t and d even though technically it's not yet a problem that she doesn't say it. The sounds you are mentioning do not sound like sounds that would qualify for speech at that age, though you may want to have an oral motor evaluation (by slp), as there may be some muscle weakness leading to your child's difficulty. That is the case with my dd, and so even more than working on the sounds we have been working on the muscle strengthening and lateralization of her tongue. My dd has made tremendous improvement since starting speech, but we still have a long way. When she started she said 3-4 words (at 18 months) not at almost 2.5 she says many more words, but not that many more sounds, so now she needs a dictionary of her own language!
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gp2.0




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 19 2016, 10:41 pm
DD didn't say K or G or R sounds at 2.5. I was able to teach her on my own to pronounce K and G by the time she was 4. But I couldn't teach her a strong R. A speech therapist at age 5-6 was only able to teach her a soft R and only with some words. She's 6.5 now and that's where we are up to. They say R can take up to age 8 to develop so I'm hoping that will happen...but my other DD developed a strong R at age 2 as did most of my first DDs peers. So IME if they don't develop it early at age 2 it doesn't necessarily kick in on its own later. But R is one of the hardest sounds to teach and can't be taught at age 2.
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bsy




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 19 2016, 10:51 pm
I'm an SLP. Those sounds are not expected to be developed by 2.5. /r/ is one of the latest developing sounds, by around age 8. /ch/ is also considered difficult. If you google which sounds are expected by what age, you'll see that not many are expected by that age.
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gp2.0




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 19 2016, 11:42 pm
bsy wrote:
I'm an SLP. Those sounds are not expected to be developed by 2.5. /r/ is one of the latest developing sounds, by around age 8. /ch/ is also considered difficult. If you google which sounds are expected by what age, you'll see that not many are expected by that age.


Yes I heard this from several SLPs. However, just from listening to children I can hear the vast majority of them pronouncing very strong Rs at an early age, 2-3. So I think the only reason why R is not expected to be developed until age 8 is because it's just very hard to teach.

Age 8 is a very late age IMO and they should lower it to 5/6. By age 8 a child's vocabulary has probably quadrupled from when they were 5/6 and now they need to relearn hundreds of words that they're pronouncing wrong out of habit...
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amother
Saddlebrown


 

Post Tue, Sep 20 2016, 2:16 am
gp2.0 wrote:
Yes I heard this from several SLPs. However, just from listening to children I can hear the vast majority of them pronouncing very strong Rs at an early age, 2-3. So I think the only reason why R is not expected to be developed until age 8 is because it's just very hard to teach.

Age 8 is a very late age IMO and they should lower it to 5/6. By age 8 a child's vocabulary has probably quadrupled from when they were 5/6 and now they need to relearn hundreds of words that they're pronouncing wrong out of habit...


I don't think we can change developmental milestones Wink
My friend's brother didn't say r until just recently, he's 8, and once he got it, that's it. No relearning, sometimes he gets a reminder. They know how it's supposed to sound so they work on correcting it.

I'm scared to say this bc I really don't want to offend anyone.

I've seen that ffb kids have an easier time with r and ch, while kids who are born to BT's have a harder time.. no clue why..
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gp2.0




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 29 2016, 11:47 am
amother wrote:
I don't think we can change developmental milestones Wink
My friend's brother didn't say r until just recently, he's 8, and once he got it, that's it. No relearning, sometimes he gets a reminder. They know how it's supposed to sound so they work on correcting it.

I'm scared to say this bc I really don't want to offend anyone.

I've seen that ffb kids have an easier time with r and ch, while kids who are born to BT's have a harder time.. no clue why..


That's what I'm saying. I don't believe 8 years old is a fixed milestone like they make it sound. There's a huge gap between age 2 and age 8 and it seems odd that some kids will take 6 years longer to develop an ability that some kids master at 2, and we'll call this 6 year gap normal. I can't think of any other developmental milestones where a 6 year gap is considered normal.
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amother
Fuchsia


 

Post Fri, Sep 30 2016, 6:36 am
I just took my 3.5 year old for a speech evaluation with a speech therapist because she can't say k and g, which are much easier than ch. I also took her for a speech evaluation with a developmental neurologist when she was 2 and a quarter. Both told me the same thing - letter and sound mispronunciations are normal until age 4, and there is no need to do anything before then, even if the letters / sounds are ones that most kids can say at that age. And to bring her back when she's 4 if there is still a problem. The only exception might be if a stranger can't understand your child more than 50% of the time by the time they are over 2 - but it does not sound like this is the case for your child (e.g. I had a neighbor who at 2.5 didn't pronounce k, g, l, r, sh, th, s, z - you couldn't understand her at all). And the doctor specifically told me that not being able to say certain sounds at 2 which are difficult (ch, r, l) is totally normal at this age.

In the meantime, dd has started to notice the difference and has begun to try to fixz the problem on her own, and it may resolve before she's 4.

Also, I couldn't say 's' or 'z' when I was little, and they had me wait until I was 6 to do speech therapy. Waiting doesn't hurt.

The only exception in your case might be the tongue tie. Butm my dd had tongue tie too, and we took care of it by 6 weeks old. And she still can't pronounce things. So a speech problem isn't necessarily caused by unresolved tongue tie.

I also want to say, the general rule of thumb in my book is that if you think there's a problem, get the kid of evaluated. Which, as you can see, is what I keep doing for my own kid. But, be prepared that they will probably tell you not to come back until age 4 at least. Also, if there is tongue tie, then a speech therapist is a better person to evaluate the problem than a developmental neurologist.
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imasinger




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 30 2016, 6:45 am
My DS has ASD. He is 10. He is only recently saying |r| closer to correctly, and not in all words.

He has been doing speech therapy since he was 2, and they never once worked on correcting his pronunciation.

They said it wasn't necessary, and it would cause DS to be frustrated and angry.

It seems that they are right. He's getting there. And without anger or frustration.
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madler




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 30 2016, 8:05 am
I'm an SLP. We dont expect kids to master before 7 to 8 but we can start working on it before then. But 2 is definitely too young to even try. They dont have the fine motor skills needed yet to folow directions and learn to pronounce it properly.
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