Please talk to me about articulation

[waiting2bemommy]

I might be totally out on a limb here, so please tell me to calm down if I need to.

My ds is 2 years old (25 months to be exact) and has an extensive vocabulary, in English and to a lesser extent in Spanish. His receptive language is excellent as well. He can even translate a few things if you ask him. He speaks in pretty age appropriate sentences, uses adjectives/adverbs and can discuss abstract concepts and still follow what yore saying.

However, I am noticing that no one except me knows what he's saying half the time. I try hard not to "translate" for him or speak for him, but people just don't understand him. I feel like he has sort of a "lazy" mouth. He is able to speak more clearly sometimes if you make him repeat the word correctly, but he rushes his speech and mmbles a LOT. for example, he pronunces popsicle "pah-keey-yow." But if you ask him to say it correctly, after me spending quite some time showing him my mouth and how to say the word, now h will say very deliberately, "pop SICLE" His Spanish is even worse than his English, and I know he knows a lot more Spanish than I give him credit for, but I can't usually understand him until AFTER he repeats it in English, and then I'm like "oh, I can see how ay yah yo was supposed to be helado" or whatever.

I feel like he is outgrowing his speech abilities and it worries me because I see him frustrated sometimes when he can't make himself understood.

He may be starting a new preschool soon and I want him to be in the older group of kids both for speech reasons and because he is really taking off academically, and LOVES the structure of a real "class" and doing "work" vs just running aaround all day. I'm afraid though that they will stick him in the younger class because he won't be able to express what he knows.

Am I making something out of nothing? Should I wait and see? Get him evaluated? I work with a lot of special needs kids so sometime I worry that I'm looking for a problem that isn't there. On the other hand I worry about being too relaxed about something that may be a lot easier to get a handle on now than in 2 or 3 years.

[SoulCakes]

My daughter had pretty horrible pronunciation until relatively recently (and she still doesn't regularly make the /th/ sound, despite being able to if we ask). She was/is ahead of her peers verbally, but behind almost all of them in when it came to sounding the words out.

I've worried about this more intensely at various moments in the past, usually when her speech seemed to be making little improvement and, shamefully, when we'd spend lots of time around more "normal-speaking" children. I've talked to her pediatrician about it and have been consistently told not to worry, it's not outside the range of normal, and this was seconded by a speech therapist.

So just talk to his doctor if you have any concerns, and take it from there. I can understand why you're worried, but poor pronunciation at his age is very, very common. Also talk to those in charge of placement at his preschool about your concerns - they may be even better able to reassure you that his speech falls well within the normal range.

[lilmom]

This actually sounds really normal to me. I would give it time. He just turned two. No big deal!

[kcstar]

I have no idea what's normal or not, but DS (28 mos) has recently gotten into singing:

ing-ol ing-ol iddow aw
ow I unner ut oo aw
up above the old o i
ike a aimo i de guy

[limabean]

I remember when DS (now age 5) was that age, DH and I would marvel at his wonderful speech and how articulate he was, and just recently we were looking back at videos of him talking at that age and ... yeah, it was totally no surprise that we were the only ones who could understand him.

You just get so used to hearing them talk that it sounds more understandable than it actually is, I think. It seems like many many adults have difficulty understanding 2 and 3 year olds -- totally normal.

[waiting2bemommy]

Well I went to my counseling today and I mentioned about the speech and he advised me to get it checked out, just in case. He has actually met and interacted with my ds so I trust his opinion. We are actually having other issues with ds as well, that it was suggested that his refusal to articulate words (making it necessary for me to "translate") might be an attention seeking thing (sorry to go all psychological here, lol).

I was worried that I'd make this big deal out of soemthing that was totally nothing, but I called the EI people and told them exactly what I told you guys, that it might be nothing to worry about at all, but I'd love to get a second, more professional opinion, and they took my info and that was it. Easy peasy. I also found this online for anyone who's interested in seeing where their child is at: http://asq.uoregon.edu/ It was sort of fun to fill out and see how much he knows!

You guys are probably right and I'm probably worried about nothing; limabean, I sent a video of ds singing the wheels on the bus once to a friend on skype and she was like, "what am I supposed to be amazed about?" glad I'm not the only one!

[Qestia]

I also heard that bilingual children acquire speech at a different rate that children speaking only one language--so it may be totally normal within that context, too--just something to keep in mind.