I don't have much for comparison for ds' speech. DD was/is highly advanced in verbal skills, so I can't compare him to her. Our little friend who's also 4 is also very advanced.

DS still says "w" for "r" (as in "Sawah" for "Sarah"), but I'm assuming this is still normal? What I'm most concerned about is he's just plain hard to understand a good portion of the time. It's like he mumbles or doesn't articulate/enunciate well. I wouldn't be as concerned if it was only people outside our family who can't understand him, but we have a hard time sometimes, too. Sometimes when he isn't clear, I can understand if he repeats a word several times, sometimes I have to give up. I know it frustrates him.

Is this within normal for his age? Turned 4 last October.

I worry because dh, my brother, and dh's brother all had speech therapy. DH says one of his letters with his tongue in the wrong place, but he learned to say it clearly this way. (Not sure that's what the speech therapist had in mind...)

don't want this to get buried....

my 3 1/2 yr old talks kinda funny, he speaks well but says "R"'s like "ahh", most people can understand him, but in preschool he seems to mumble and do some thing like you mentioned above, his preschool teacher suggested to me to call for speech therapy because she said at his age if he continues to talk like this he will have a hard time in kindergarten, so the teacher is concerned., Neighbors, friends and relatives can pretty much understand him so I havent called, in my view he mostly talks like a Wiggle, and can get speech for free once he starts school.. right now i'd pay out of pocket if he went to a speech therapist.

The only thing I think you can do is call your school district and ask them if he could get evaluated, or even your pediatrician and see what they say..

My 4 year old (5 in March) speaks very clearly and says every sound correctly. He was in speech therapy (for auditory processing, not expressive speech) and I can remember him (probably right before he turned 4) having trouble saying the hard "y" sound. He'd say lello or lard. His therapist gave me some exercises to do with him on my own, since she didn't want to focus time on expressive speech, which really helped quickly. My opinion would be to contact your county to see where to get an evaluation (probably at this point it is too late to do anything through early intervention ... I believe that is up to age 3 but I suppose that varies from county to county and would need to go through the school district). Even if they or you decide he doesn't need actual therapy, they can give you exercises to do with him on your own which should help a lot. Some kids grow out of things on their own. I'm a big believer in early intervention when it comes to speech. It is so much easier to correct things earlier and alleviates frustration for children. JMO =)

WE had the exact same problem when Celeste, my oldest, was 4. She had a speech eval at school from a speech therapist. I called her afterwards tot alk about the eval. The therapist said all the things she was doing "wrong" were perfectly normal for her age. She said if we still had the same problems in a year, then I might want to consider therapy.

Sure enough, over the next 6 months, she gradually acquired the correct sounds. It was slow, but it just happened. She is now 5.5 and has lovely diction and enunciation.

I agree with most of the advice you've gotten. Sounds like an evaluation is in order, and they might tell you he's fine, or they might recommend therapy. Therapy is fun, playful, and not a big deal, and I agree that it's better to take care of it earlier rather than later.

I agree that it could be detrimental in kindergarten. I would go for an eval, and speech therapy if it were suggested. I want my children to have the best possible start, and from my own experience, speech therapy is a good thing!

We had the same problems with Sarah when she was 4. She had a moderate speech problem and had speech therapy for about a year. Very expensive $50 per 1/2 hour.

The county does do free up until school. I called the school and got the info for the county to do the eval for us. They came right to our house and spent a couple of hours with Sarah doing it.

She is so much better and i think age did alot of that. The school didn't accept her into speech this year in K and she is doing just fine!!

Good luck!!! I agree get the eval!!

My son just turned 4 this past Monday. He has a hard time with F, S, L, H and some blends (sh, ch, th) He often leaves the beginning consonant off. He is difficult for people to understand sometimes. But his speech has improved so much in even the last 6 mos.

I do try to work with him on the sounds he has difficulty with. I give him a mirror and point out exactly how I use my mouth to make that sound. He can always make that sounds alone when I show him. He's *just* started being able to incorporate the sounds into words...although only when I'm working with him. I'm not worried though...eventually it will carry over into his every day talking.

If we reach a point where he is no longer progressing I'll look into speech therapy. At this point he does seem to be outgrowing his speech issues.

My dd is almost 5.5. She had your typical "wrong" sounds, but I think by the time she was 4.5 they were fine. She goes to preschool with 4, 5, and a few 6 year olds and I was amazed that a lot of them still had speech "difficulties" Some of them sounded just like mt almost 3 year old. Anyway, dd had conferences she handed out a list of what age children typically learn certain sounds. I was surprised to see that the "normal" age range for a lot of sounds was till age 8. I'll try to find the sheet today.

Justin just turned 4 and can say all sounds correctly except for the "th" sound, which he says as "fff." Many of his friends, though, still do the "sawah" thing and some do "fw" instead of "sw." Like "push me on the fwing."

I think it could be normal, but especially if your area does the free speech eval for pre-kindergarten age, I'd have it evaluated... better to help him out now than wait until he's in kindergarten.

Michelle

Thanks everyone!! I'll have to ask around and figure out what step to take next. We homeschool, and in Texas as long as your child has never been in the school system, you never have to have any kind of association with them or write a letter of intent or anything. DH just called and agreed with me that we'd rather go private with an evaluation if possible. I'll have to ask on one of my local Yahoo groups if someone has a recommendation.

Thanks so much!!! Kind of helps to get the nudge we need to get him evaluated.

Emily is 3 1/2. I can understand her easily about 75% of the time. It's harder when she's tired or isn't feeling good. The other 25% of the time it's like you said - sounds like she's mumbling.

Other people can only seem to understand about 1/2 of what she says. People who have never had children (or been around them seem to have more trouble understanding her than others.

We're going to wait until the beginning of the next school year to see if it improves. She has a big vocabulary, talks in full sentences, jabbers all the time, etc. so I'm not too worried. If it doesn't improve by next fall then I'm going to have her evaluated. If there is a problem that will give us a whole year to work it out before she starts Kindergarten.

My neice who is 3 is in speech therapy. It's paid for by the state and they can choose whether to meet in the office or in their own home. My sister has been very satisfied with the progress N is making.

Running out but wanted to post. My daughter was 2 1/2 and no one could understand her except me and that was only 1/2 the time. I know that was young but it was bad. We had her evaluated and she needed therapy badly! She went for 3X a week for 3 years and improved greatly but STILL has speech issues now at almost 15 - her speech is very broken and staccato.

I'd get an eval done - it's definately going to be covered by the schools or state.

Ann

When my ds was that age I was the only person who could understand him. Once while out at a restraunt a woman came up to us & said that she had been listening to my ds & that she was a specialist & we needed to get my ds tested because he definitely had hearing problems. My mom who is a pediatric nurse said I needed to get him tested. So, i brought ds to the Dr & she said that he speech was fine for his age & that they dont worry til at least 5. Well, by 5 he was speaking just fine. He has no hearing problems at all.