I just noticed that my daughter puts her tongue behind her teeth to make the "s" sound instead of behind her top teeth. She does still use a pacifier (yeah, I know, we're working on that right now), so I wonder if that has caused this or affected it. Is this a normal stage of speech development that will pass on its own, or is this something that's going to have to be addressed? Has anyone else dealt with this before? I intend to talk to her pediatrician, but we've been having problems receiving reliable information from her so I thought I'd check around with other parents, too. Any ideas?
2007-02-03 12:57:26 · 8 answers · asked by calliope_13731 5 in Pregnancy & Parenting ➔ Toddler & Preschooler
Sorry, in first sentence I meant to say she puts her tongue BETWEEN her teeth, not behind, like you're supposed to.
2007-02-03 15:40:52 · update #1
Actually, I put my tongue on the roof of my mouth just behind my front teeth. That is what I meant by behind my front teeth, sorry!
2007-02-03 15:44:12 · update #2
I went to school for speech pathology and usually at this age slight speech differences are nothing to be worried about and they will work themselves out. However, if she used to pronounce it correctly and now is not, it could definitely be due to the pacifier and it causing changes in her mouth's structure. Be sure that you are always pronouncing the sound correctly, because some parents will say words how their children say them, cause it's cute or whatever. At this age, its probably best to wait and let her figure it out because she is probably still not aware that it is incorrect. However, if you notice other problems with her speech it may indicate a problem. An idea for getting rid of her pacifiers is to make a special occasion out of it. Prepare her by talking about it for a day or two and be very excited. You could set it up to give them to a baby you know, and explain that a little baby really needs/loves pacifiers and it's so nice for big girls to give them their old pacifiers. Then, have the receivers be very grateful and animated towards her and even give her a 'big girl' surprise maybe like a new doll or something like that. But you have to get rid of ALL of them and don't give in a give her one. It will be hard at first for her, but pretty quickly she will realize there are no pacifiers to have and find new comforts.
2007-02-03 13:12:29 · answer #1 · answered by pinkjunkie_11 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I may be misunderstanding your question, but to make the sound of the letter "S", her tongue should be behind her teeth. Try saying some words that begin with the letter "S" such as sun, some, or sing. Your tongue is not placed behind your top teeth as you need to push air through your teeth which can only be accomplished by keeping your tongue behind your bottom teeth. Because your teeth are together when making the sound "S", I am not sure how you know the position of her tongue. Some consonant sounds like l, s, r, v, z, j, ch, sh, th may not be said correctly consistently until 4-5 years of age. I would not be concerned about her sound formation quite yet. Continue to speak to her in a normal way and she will, with practice, likely develop her language skills just fine. In my experience, I have not found pacifier use to be a cause of language delay. My oldest and my youngest both used a pacifier (oldest until 2 1/2 and youngest until 5!!). They are now 27 and 9. Neither have had teeth or language problems. With our youngest, about the age of 3, we made the pacifier an "in your bed only" activity. We did not allow her to walk around with it. If she wanted to suck on it, she had to be in her bed. At first she'd run into her room throughout the day and lay for a few minutes sucking it. About 3 1/2 she only used it at night to go to sleep.
2007-02-03 13:36:47 · answer #2 · answered by sevenofus 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
3 year olds are not responsible for very many sounds at that young of an age. We don't even check or speech delays until they are 4 at our preschool. The speech therapist from the public school comes to our private school and does the screenings. The parents can then call her for further evaluations or speech classes or they can call the local hospital to be evaluated. We also offer in our town free child development screenings. Those are through the public school as well though. If you are very much against going to your school district, try your local hospital. Good luck to you and your daughter!
2016-05-24 01:05:21 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I used to do this too because I had an overbite I went through s couple years of speech therapy and they would make me put gum on the top of my mouth so my tongue would stick to it and I would say words over and over now I dont have a problem.
2007-02-03 13:06:32 · answer #4 · answered by goodmommy22 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Wait til she's 4 then have here assessed. Kids take time to learn s, c, and z sounds.
Both my kids have the same problem but my 9 yr old is fine after 2 yrs of speech therapy.
My 4 yr old is coming along but he may need it too.
No worries it can be corrected.
Good Luck.
2007-02-03 13:05:08 · answer #5 · answered by Momma-Mia 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Its called a tounge thrust. Or that is what my dentist called it. I had it when I was a kid. Back then they had me tie a string to a button and hold the button to the roof of my mouth when I tried to say certain things to train my tounge not to do it. But I thought it was annoying to do that lol. I ended up out growing it I would not worry. But ask the dr or dentist. That is always a comfort it coming from an expert.
2007-02-03 13:04:13 · answer #6 · answered by SiberianHusky_8 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think you should worry about it until she gets older. I don't think that you could determine that a speech problem until she is the age where she is supposed to be talking clearly, and isn't, like around 4 or 5.
2007-02-03 13:56:59 · answer #7 · answered by jakobnjaelyn 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
If you dont want her to have her pacifier anymore just try to cut it off bit by bit
2007-02-03 14:21:49 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋