GD is behind in her speech

My son had a complex speech 'problem' until he was 6 or so. He swopped letter sounds all over the place! The speech therapist said it was hard to put a name to it. However he was chatty, happy and confident. Other children in his class would sometimes interpret what he said for the teacher. I took him to speech therapy. It was boring - for him and for me sat watching. Tedious in the extreme. After a year or so I stopped taking him and just talked more to him and read more books together. He grew out of the problems. It was all just a maturation process. I wish I never took him to speech therapy as it did neither of us any good and it was just a matter of time

This thread has reminded me of something I had completely forgotten. I could not pronounce "S" at all until primary 3, when I suddenly got it and have been fine since. It was quite a problem at the time as my full name had 4 xS and my address had 6! For either S, SH or F, I said TH and was told I had a lisp (or lithp), The GP thought it was because I was very slow to acquire teeth. Anyway, it sorted itself out in time.

eazybee, I agree. The sooner, the better.
My daughter had an extensive vocabulary at three years of age, she just couldn't formulate certain sounds.

Leaving schools to sort it out, just extends the waiting times, which can be quite lengthy.

I think there may be a problem with her hearing concerning specific sounds, as the speech therapist suggested. I am surprised her Nursery hasn't picked up on this and suggested referral to an audiologist to check her hearing, then possibly a speech therapist for advice.
Unfortunately some nurseries are inclined to leave it to school to sort out, and parents also.
If she does have a problem the sooner it is identified the sooner it will be sorted out, particularly in the Early Years where the ratio of adults to children is higher and there is more one-to -one support.

I googled and found out that a child of 3 should have a vocabulary of around 500 words and recognise another 1200- so I think you are worrying unecessarily.

Children develop at different rates, you know.

IF she is difficult to understand when she starts school, I would expect the teacher to approach her parents about the problem.

Flopsy is HER bunny, if she wants to call him/her Wopwee then quite honestly it is no business of yours. My aunt insisted my Teddy was a boy when I was 3, while I knew that my teddy was a girl! Result one very cross niece.

Stop correcting this child and let her chatter as she likes - at least she is willing and able to talk and has no hearing problems. Articulation and pronounciation will probably sort themselves out in the course of the coming year.

Why is she frustrated with her little brother? Could this be why she is still holding on to her version of baby talk?

Any 3 year old who feels a smaller brother or sister is hogging the limelight will either start talking baby talk again, wetting herself or demonstrating some other form of "baby" behaviour.

I was very concerned that my daughter aged three had difficulty with her speech. Despite having an extensive vocabulary, she just couldn't make certain sounds. She used to get so frustrated making herself understood, that she just gave up trying and found a similar word.

I was so concerned that it may have been caused by being deprived of oxygen during a difficult birth, that I spoke to my GP.. He said he would refer her for speech therapy, but unfortunately there was a very long waiting list.

A few days later her nursery teacher approached me and said that a speech therapist was visiting the nursery and would I be offended if she assessed my daughter. Offended? I was so relieved.
This resulted in my DD having speech therapy on a weekly basis for three years, from the age of three,
As an adult, she now has an extensive vocabulary, but there are still a couple of sounds, she still can't say.

When I was teaching, I saw a fair number of children starting school with speech problems, which should have been addressed at an earlier age. If your daughter has concerns, she should ask for advice sooner, rather than later.
By the time my DD started school, there was vast improvement in her speech.

OP

Please do not compare the timing of the milestones of both kids - big no no

Your daughter is aware of the issue and had it handled.

If you live in trepidation for the 1 day a week babysitting - is it a good arrangement then?

You are making a mountain of a molehill

Chill! Your time of raising kids is done!

Step back and enjoy your family.

Thanks for all your replies. My GD has attended nursery one day a week between 2 and 2 and a half and 2 days for the last year which she loves. The only time she didn’t attend was during last winter’s lockdown between December and March as the nursery closed.

She didn’t verbalise much until she was 2 unlike her brother who already has a couple of words. She doesn’t rush her words though, unlike her male cousin who spoke so fast he got very muddled when he was younger. Her baby brother showed very distinct signs of jealousy by the age of 3 months and often screams at the top of his lungs if mummy goes anywhere near GD. She does get plenty of mummy time at bedtime though. DD provides lots of activities for them both. Until this year GD had never attended another child’s birthday party again due to pandemic restrictions. She is a very easy child to be with but we live in trepidation for when we take on her brother one day a week from April when DD goes back to work. ?

I moved on from being a speech and language therapist for children and moved on to adults but have happy memories of my work with children. We had all sorts of games and activities that we did without children really realising how I was trying to change their speech. It was great to see their improvement. We had a lot of fun. It was mostly small boys who had difficulties rather than girls.
This thread has revived some happy memories.

My granddaughter can be like this. It sounds like she’s very bright, and her brain is going too fast for her mouth. This will most likely self correct, but if not, a speech therapist may help.

My son needed a speech therapist at around four years old. He used to stumble over the beginning of words. He started talking at 13 months, and at the time, the therapist said this was common in children who talked early. One of his stumblings was quite awkward. He had trouble starting words beginning with ‘S’, and substituted with ‘F’. Very embarrassing, as at the time, The Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, who he loved, were calling everyone’ suckers’.

Thankfully, it was short lived. Don’t worry about your granddaughter, she’ll be fine. Perhaps don’t try to pre empt what she is going to say. I know it’s hard waiting?

DGD had speech therapy from 4 following 2 comprehensive hearing tests which were fine. She was checked for a soft palate problem as very nasal speech but again that was fine. The speech therapist gave exercises to do at home and she is much better now at nearly 5 - been discharged now. She is and was very very articulate - never stops talking. Nursery had some problems understanding but not now.
DGS2 is 3 ¾ and also speaks a lot. A few words from baby talk are now changing to the correct pronunciation eg. for bath he said bash and he has changed that himself to bath in the last 2 weeks. 3.5 is probably still quite young - as long as you say the correct words back to her. Aveline these sounds are similar to what DGD had to practise. The speech therapist did games with her and she enjoyed the sessions.

BlueBelle - that wasn't actually what I was saying, and I was speaking in a wider context, not just about this particular child. There are have been many concerns raised about how the pandemic may have long-lasting effects on the youngest children - including things like speech development. Only time will tell.

I didn't learn to speak properly till I went to school. I didn't really meet other children before that and my parents could understand me so they weren't bothered. I can't remember my speech being a problem at school, but I found the whole experience of school quite traumatic so it was probably the least of my worries!

GS2 had some speech therapy when he first started school. Now he is 9 he is very voluble and pretty much organises his whole class.

'f' and 's' are high frequency sounds hence 'wopwee' is a reasonable approximation.

After 5 children and 11 grandchildren, *glamma', I would say - don't worry!!

If there is a problem, school will suggest something and you can do your bit to help then.

Wolfie, more or less the same age, is difficult to understand sometimes but improves daily.

Blondisc I don’t really agree with your diagnosis that it’s because she hasn’t been in nursery There were no such thing as nurseries when we were growing up I never saw a nursery and was brought up by mainly one person my Nan and no brothers or sisters but I still spoke well
Maybe she doesn’t like the name flopsy and wants a wopwee
Or maybe there are certain letters she can’t manage yet
I would, like someone else said, check for tongue tied it maybe that she just can’t get her mouth around certain letters
Although her general hearing seems good have a check anyway as there may be certain sounds she’s not picking up
Try not to worry my very articulate friend became mute for a time when she was small it was her way of ‘having a break’

“Another thought” not mother !

When DD3 was about 3 1/2 going on 4 I was devastated when her Nursery teacher told me that unlike the other children, they were not encouraging her to recite a nursery rhyme/tell a fairy tale “in case the other children laughed at her speech impediment “
What speech impediment?
She couldn’t really pronounce her “s” sounds but I could understand her as could her sisters. Admittedly as the baby of the family we had probably not discouraged “baby talk” ( well it is so sweet isn’t it?)
Getting no joy from the Health Visitor and the possibility of a wait of over a year for speech therapy on the NHS, we bit the bullet and sent her to a highly recommended private therapist. It was £30 an hour I remember (and that was 36 years ago) but it only took two sessions to sort out the “s”’s and any other problems.
About a month after, her sisters came to me and said “Mummy, you know you took. to a speaking lady to teach her to speak, well, could you take her back and get her to stop ?”
I would say as long as her hearing is fine, I would not give it mother thought. Read to her, encourage her to talk and be patient. She will be fine.

I'm a speech therapist by training. I wonder if this wee girl might have a high frequency hearing loss? This would mean that she wouldn't pick up on sounds like /s/ /sh/ /ch/ etc so wouldn't be articulating them. It's good that her language comprehension and expression is fine it's just her articulation that's currently a problem.

One of my sons had continual ear infections and ever present glue ear, and quite delayed speech as a consequence. He had two sets of grommets in early childhood. He didn't say much till well over 3. I find it hard to reconcile that with the hard to get a word in edgeways verbose person he has become.

He had 'glue ear' ( Otitis Media with Effusion) and was treated for it. His pronunciation improved rapidly, and no more frustration at not being understood
I remember one of DD's friends had this, not diagnosed until she was about 7. She was a very bright child, sat herself at the front of the class and then the parents and teacher realised she had taught herself to lip read.

Is she talking in baby language to her little brother? Or is she sub-consciously reverting to baby language because he gets a lot of attention.

You can only support her parents' decisions and school may well pick up on this if she is still doing it then.

If you call Flopsy "Wopwee" as she does she may turn round one day and tell you very firmly that bunny's name is Flopsy!

You’ve done all you can. You talked to your daughter, now you must support how she and the child’s father choose to handle this going forward.

I think all the "milestones" from our own children growing up are more or less a thing of the past now.
Things are much more flexible.
I know a little girl who had what seemed like real issues when she started school.
Nobody could understand a word!
She did soon catch up though, because she mixed with children she wanted to communicate with.

Are you absolutely sure she doesn't have a hearing problem?

My grandson got very frustrated as a toddler when people didn't understand him - but he couldn't hear properly to distinguish the sounds he heard so couldn't make himself understood - hence the frustration... he too could hear noises in other rooms.

He had 'glue ear' ( Otitis Media with Effusion) and was treated for it. His pronunciation improved rapidly, and no more frustration at not being understood.

... I assume tho', as it's a very common problem, she's been checked for this?

It could right itself in time, as with some children they can be just late developers. Try and correct the child each time without any baby-talk. Maybe hearing " conversations " with her brother is causing her to be like this ?

My GGD had an episode of talking as though she'd been inhaling helium, but that stopped when my D told her to stop after each sentence---she was 8 at the time. She was squeaking and talking in whispers.