3.5 Year Old's Pronunciation

[RockStarMom]

My daughter still can't say her 'l's, 'r's, or 'th'--life is "yife," robot is "wobot," birthday is "birfday," etc. She's extremely intelligent and verbal, but I've noticed that she's the only one of her friends whose pronunciation is lagging. Is this still normal?

[4evermom]

I think it's normal at that age. I'm pretty sure that those are the more difficult sounds that people don't usually worry about a kid not being able to say until more like 6.

[hopefulfaith]

My ds is 3.5 and does that, too. I'm curious to hear if anyone says it's abnormal. From what I've read, they grow out of mispronunciation as their tongues/mouth muscles develop.

I might almost be sad when he can speak correctly. My 2 year old dd just learned to pronounce "z" and now we can no longer call zippers "yippers". There was something that lightened the stress of getting everyone out to the car when you could ask her "Can I Yip your Yipper for you?" There is something just so childlike about mispronunciation that I think I might miss.

[birdie22]

My ds is 4.5 and he still does most of that. His Rs are mostly sorted out, and initial Ls are 50/50. "Th" is still "f."

The other day, we saw a worm in the dirt, and he asked if the worm could dig to grandma's house. I said, "I doubt it; how would the worm get across the river?" He said, "He could swivver up the side of the bridge, and swivver and swivver all the way across to grandmas." It took me a long minute to put together swivver=slither.

I got the idea somewhere that very verbal kids sometimes hold on to these habits a long time, just because the patterns were put in place early. I can't remember now whether I read that, or someone told me, or I just made it up.

[4evermom]

My ds still has problems with L and TH at 7 1/2, btw. He is physically capable of saying them, though. I think it will sort out when he is reading better. I remember learning to say L so I was pretty old, maybe 6.

[4evermom]

Originally Posted by birdie22

I got the idea somewhere that very verbal kids sometimes hold on to these habits a long time, just because the patterns were put in place early. I can't remember now whether I read that, or someone told me, or I just made it up.

Makes sense to me. Ds was certainly a very verbal toddler. Also, I think genetics play a role. These speech things are very common in my family.

[griffin2004]

Originally Posted by birdie22

I got the idea somewhere that very verbal kids sometimes hold on to these habits a long time, just because the patterns were put in place early. I can't remember now whether I read that, or someone told me, or I just made it up.

That's interesting. My DD is 6 and still has trouble with R's and L's (to a lesser degree). To describe her as "verbal" doesn't even begin to touch her talkativeness! I think "motor mouth" comes closer.

[Ceili]

My 4.5 year old still has trouble with Ls and THs. Also his name ends with a TH sound and 90% of the time his friends replace that sound with an F or an S sound.

[eirual]

My 3.5 yo is in the same boat. L and I guess Rs too in some cases. he just said Journey properly, but he would say "woa-bot" and just sad "wap" for lap. He is really good with language though- very imaginative and talkative to boot!

[OboePlayerMom]

My 5.5 yo son is in speech therapy for L, R, Th, Sh, and something else I can't remember. Developmentally, your dd is not behind - L is a tough one for some children, and ages 5/6/7 are the time to master them. I thought L was tough for all children, and laughed at my choice of names for my daughter (Ellen Lorraine L____), since neither of my children could say her name properly. But then I heard a 3 yo say some L words perfectly and saw that different children develop those sounds at different times. The speech therapist said R is the toughest to master, and I am seeing that.

Just keep an ear on it, and if it's still happening around 5 you may want to consult a speech therapist.

Leslie, mommy to DS (5.5) and DD (3.5)