3 1/2 yr old speech?

Question

My three and half year old speech is very hard to understand. She's not enunciating her words clearly and she mix her words. I had her tested by the speech therapist when she was three and they said it was normal for her age not clearly pronounce her letters or words. Now that she is going on four years old I'm concern that he may have a hard time in school. When she spoke at the bithday party last weekend, no one understood her (other kids). Should she be tested again or let it go and she catch on- on her own as she get older.

so I rushed and didn't proof read my question. Sorry I didn't pass your test. Thanks for the great answers.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, three-year-olds are only "required" to have six clear sounds. I say unfortunately because I believe that you, as a parent, can tell when a child needs speech therapy. I would have her tested again as soon as she turns four, because they are expected to clearly pronounce more sounds. I am a preschool teacher who teaches threes and fours in a mixed-age classroom. I've been told twice that students of mine did not need speech at three, only to be told they did need it when I referred them again at four.

Answer 2

Shame on the speech pathologist who tested your child, because a 3 year-old should be understandable 75% of the time. She is mixing up her words, too, and may indeed have a language disability as well as a speech and language delay. Go back to the elementary school and demand another evaluation. She is clearly more than 6 months delayed at this point, and would benefit from services. She is old enough to qualify for Head Start, too-- they take kids at 3 if they have a qualifying condition.
Please don't try doing the therapy yourself without the guidance of a fully qualified speech pathologist. There's a reason it requires a masters degree and 9 months of post-graduate training to be one!

Answer 3

Both of my daughters had speech therepy so I've had some backround in this matter. At 3 1/2, kids don't speak perfectly. We started speech therepy for my girls when they were 2 1/2; they really needed it. Who did the evaluation? Generally speaking, a private place will have looser guidelines as to whether a child needs speech therapy than a publicly run itstitution (eg, the public schools, state early intervention agencies). If the public school says you don't need speech, go to a private place. If they say you don't, believe them; they are in the business of making money and writing evaluations that keep people coming in weekly.

Will your health insurance pay for speech? If you go private you will likely have to get the evaluation preapproved by the insurance agency (you'll need a prescription for the eval). Then you'll have to deal with weekly speech visits and the copays associated with them. I'm not saying it's not worth it; I've done it for years, but if it's a factor for you you need to consider it.

ps, my oldest daughter, age 8, (3 years of speech, for awhile she went 2x week with the school and 1x week private) now has the most perfect crystal clear speech you can imagine; it didn't get to an acceptable level until she was past 5. My second daughter is no longer in speech but still has some issues; however the school says she no longer *requires* it and I am not willing to continue with the private place.

Answer 4

Well. if she talks and understands well, and enunciation is the only problem then i would just wait it out, and see what happens. More than likely she'll improve. But if no one can really understand anything she says but you, then that may be a problem. If i were you i'd wait it out until she turned 4 then if her speech is still an issue i'd have her re-evaluated, by a pathologist... and no one else. Its perfectly normal for a child to mispronounce and/or replace words with the wrong letters... like saying 'duce' for juice, or 'doot' for foot. But one more thing, never tell her that shes saying words wrong, and dont rush her, because this can lower her self esteem, and make her feel like shes always gonna be wrong, and therefore she may not improve... Just let her know its not the correct pronunciation by saying the word the way it should be said... over and over... and over again! Thats probably your best bet. Hope i helped.

Answer 5

If you are really concerned, get a second opinion from another speech therapist. In the meantime, or as an alternative, ensure that others in your household are enunciating properly. Teach her how to better enunciate by repronouncing the words that she is saying back to her. Singing with her is another way to expand her language skills, as is reading with her. Good luck with this!

Answer 6

If you are concerned get an Speech language pathologist to evaluate your child. Parents know best. My son is 2.7 years and is getting speech. He to can not be understood. He also is delayed in the amount of words that he knows. He can't say certain sounds at all and will omit them from a word just leaving vowel sounds. Does your child omit sounds from her speech? I can't tell you enough to get a 2nd opinion. People kept telling me my son would come around. Without speech he probably won't come around. The SLP that saw him was very concerned with his speech and glad that I called. So don't second guess yourself. If you think she needs help seek it out. You are her voice right now....Good luck to you.

Answer 7

At my sons three year well baby check his doctor told me that a good rule of thumb for speech developement is that by the time they are three years old 75%of what they say should be understandable. So if she is almost 4 and hasn't reached that point you could find a program to help with speech developement but then again maybe she is just a little behind and just needs a little help from mommy. Have you tried correcting her yourself?

Answer 8

I am surprised that your daughters doctor has not said anything about this. If she is delayed, he should have been getting her tested for hearing then development. You may want to get a second opinion from a Doctor and another therapist. There are a lot of resources to help her.

Answer 9

Maybe just try working with her on her speech yourself. My daughter was the same way, and I just sat down everyday and we worked and worked on her speech and now she can't stop talking. Also..is she in preschool or daycare? That really seems to help children out also. If she doesn't catch up soon, and you get to worried then maybe take her back to the speech therapist.

Answer 10

My 3 year old sister speaks pretty clear but she does mix up her words a little bit BUT DEFIANTLY GET A SECOND OPINION