[poisonedapple]

Arianna is ether over the top in her talking (yelling) or is mumbling
and is hard to understand. Shes just like her father in this, not the yelling part, but he talks on the softer end, and doesnt enunciate his words, so its hard to understand him sometimes especially if you arent paying attention and he starts talking to you.

Growing up his dad always made him feel stupid by saying stuff about the way DH talks, but they never tried to help fix it. They would basically say "Stop slurring your words." and expect it to be solved.

Well I want to help Arianna to not talk so mumbled, but Im not quite sure where to look for ideas on this, or even where to begin. I dont want her to lose esteem in her talking because of this, I just want to help her so she doesnt end up a grown women with this speech problem.

 

[Brenoi]

If I read your post correctly, your daughter isn't even quite 4 years old. If that is right then your best bet is to just be an example of good speech. Unless she is completely not understandable, they usually don't start speech work for several more years, as her mouth has not even finished forming.

If you feel there may be a hearing issue that is causing her to yell then I would get her hearing tested.

Other than that I would relax and wait - mentioning it perhaps at your next pediatric visit.

 

[Linda KS]

What about working on memorizing a poem together? We work on reciting nice and slow and clearly. My kids really enjoy this.

If there are particular sounds she needs to work on, you could practice the sounds with her infront of a big mirror. She can watch the way your mouth moves when you make the sound and try to get her mouth to move the same way when she makes the sound. This can be very light and fun.

Anything that forces her to work on her motor control in mouth is good, such as blow pens and bubbles.

Has she had a speech evaluation? One of my DD's had speech delays and started speech therapy at 3. It was a good thing for her.

 

[poisonedapple]

Thank you for the ideas! Those are the kinds of things I was hoping for, fun things we can do to help this so it doesnt become a problem in the long run. They say that her speech will get better in time, which I understand, but I just want to help her so that she doesnt get sloppy with her words. I love all these ideas! Thank you so much!