Any speech therapists who can tell me if this is normal?

amother

Violet

Wed, Oct 05 2016, 2:19 pm

My 3-year-old has an age-appropriate vocabulary, but he often says words backwards. For example, instead of "patuach" (for open - he speaks only Hebrew), he says "tapuach." Instead of "matzchik" (funny), he says "machtzik." He calls his friend Shlomo "Shmolo." He calls his shoes "la'anayim" instead of "na'alayim."

He also can't say the R sound, so he just leaves it out or sometimes replaces it with a Y. I'm pretty sure that's still okay at this age though.

Can any speech therapists weigh in on this? Thanks!

amother

Tan

Wed, Oct 05 2016, 6:46 pm

I'm not a speech therapist but sounds perfectly normal for a three year old! As the mother of a child who did/does need speech therapy she was hardly talking at all at age 3. I'd be overjoyed if her only problem was transposing some sounds.

bsy

Wed, Oct 05 2016, 7:32 pm

I'm a speech therapist. It sounds fine to me; those are all long, complicated words with lots of sounds. The English version would be the very common "pasghetti" and "breafkast".

FranticFrummie

Thu, Oct 06 2016, 5:08 am

My kiddo had very advanced language skills at an early age, and she had this. She took on a lot of words that were way ahead of most kids her age, often with hilarious results. I treasure those memories.

"When amimuls get sick, they go in an ambloolance to the hostible, to see a vetraminarian." LOL

My mom tells me that when I was that age, I was the same way. My sister's name is Jennifer Patrice. I called her "Jennyfroo Bee Trees".

This also happens when you are learning a second language. A woman in my ulpan said "Ani rotzah cafe im KELEV" instead of "chalav". I asked her if she wanted a "teacup poodle". The whole class cracked up for 5 minutes straight, and it became a running joke for the rest of the year. To this day, she has to think twice before ordering coffee. LOL

miami85

Thu, Oct 06 2016, 8:25 am

I'm not a speech therapist, though I work closely with them. I was going to say that it sounds a lot like the English equivalent to "cimanin" (cinnamon) and "aks' (ask).

My son at 3 used to say the name of the character in Planes which is "Dusty Crophopper" as "Mr. Crusty Popper"

amother

Coffee

Thu, Oct 06 2016, 8:53 am

Im not a speech therapist, it sounds normal to confuse long words. However, one of my kids did the same and he wasnt improving as he got older. He also used to have recurring ear infections. The buildup fluid in the ear can obstruct his hearing the words clearly. We took care of it. B"h we saw great results.

shabbatiscoming

Thu, Oct 06 2016, 9:06 am

OP, I agree with everything everyone said, also you seem to be in israel possibly. I think children that are bilingual also have a bit of language recognition. But it usually works itself out in the correct time.

amother

Violet

Thu, Oct 06 2016, 6:44 pm

amother wrote:

He hasn't had a hearing test, but he's never had an ear infection in his life. For now, I'm going to wait until he outgrows it, but if he doesn't, I'll keep this in mind and have his hearing tested. Thanks.

amother

Violet

Thu, Oct 06 2016, 6:46 pm

shabbatiscoming wrote:

He's not really bilingual since he doesn't speak any English, but he does hear some English at home. (Nobody talks to him in English, but DH and I speak English to each other.) I wonder if this is part of it. Hopefully it will resolve with time.

amother

Cobalt

Thu, Oct 06 2016, 7:30 pm

amother wrote:

He could have build up fluid in his ear drum without ear infections. Yet that's enough for him not to hear clearly. I would check it out.

shabbatiscoming

Fri, Oct 07 2016, 1:10 am

amother wrote:

you talk to him in hebrew? Even so, he is still hearing two languages. Are you and DH fluent in hebrew?

amother

Violet

Fri, Oct 07 2016, 2:56 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

you talk to him in hebrew? Even so, he is still hearing two languages. Are you and DH fluent in hebrew?

Yes, we speak to our kids in Hebrew. Most of them don't speak any English at all, though they seem to understand at varying levels. DH and I are both fluent in Hebrew.