Baby talk or speech impediment?

[dianna11]

My DD will be 4 at the end of November. She's incredibly bright and very chatty.

I am worried about her pronunciation of s, r, l, sh, th and the usual 'baby talk' suspects. She will say "woah" for "low, "gwape' for grape, "fank you", and she somehow says 's' with her tongue sticking out like a snake, (it's actually kind of cool!) etc.

When do kids typically grow out if this? I'm starting to wonder whether this is just baby talk that she will outgrow, or if we will need to take her to a speech therapist.

[BellinghamCrunchie]

Its normal for R, L, and Th to not be pronounced correctly until 6-7. S and Sh are a little more unusual to not have yet, though. I think I'd give it til she's 4, maybe. You could get an assessment through your school district if you wanted - my guess is she wouldn't qualify for school speech services (not delayed enough) but they might give you an indication of where she stands vs. the norms.

[Adele_Mommy]

My dd had/has trouble with most of those same sounds. You literally could not tell whether she was saying "yuck" or "luck", "seep" or "sheep". She started with the school speech therapist in first grade and has made amazing progress. If your dd goes to a public kindergarten, when she starts she will probably be evaluated automatically and get help if she needs it then. If not, you can request it. If your dd will not be going to public school, then you might want to get her evaluated if she still seems to be having trouble at 5. I would not worry about it at all this early so long as you can understand her at least most of the time.

For the record, I believe the l sound should be clear by around 4 or 5. The s, sh, j, ch, th sounds a little later - 5 or 6. My dd's speech therapist did not even start working r with my dd until the end of second grade because problems with that sound are considered normal until around 7.

[LynnS6]

Actually, none of those sounds would worry me.

All are later learned sounds. L and S are typically acquired by 4, but it's not unusual for them to be acquired by 5 or later. Sh is a later sound (4 1/2 to 5) and the other sounds are all later too (5+). There's considerable variability for each of these sounds, and they're all later.

This is a good reference: http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/acquisition.html

[Llyra]

My DD is also nearly 4, and it sounds like her speech is just about the same. She HAS been evaluated; she had speech therapy as a toddler, and we still follow her progress. She has been pronounced "right on track."