[taranicole]

This has been bugging me for a while but no one IRL seems to care...and DH thinks I'm imagining it!

My 5yo speech has changed - like all of a sudden he seems to be talking differently. Sometimes it's like he's talking quiety and mumbling and when I tell him to speak up - his speech is fine and clear. Then other times it's like he's slurring his words or has a lisp. I don't notice it all the time - just sometimes and just some particular sounds but it's definetly new. Apart from that - he is fine.

Can speech impairments just appear at anytime? He has never had any probs except the usual unconcerning "wabbit" instead of "rabbit".

I just don't know what it is...so don't know what to do...I don't want to jump the gun and rush off to a speech pathologist and I'm pretty sure a doctor would just roll his eyes at me.

Any ideas?

I do appreciate your thoughts!

[meggs1]

I'd see the GP, in an adult that would make me worry.

[LynnyP]

My daughter developed a stutter at 6! They can occur late, it is unusual though I believe. I spoke to the teacher who agreed with me and then was lucky enough to ask a friend who is a speech pathologist. I then booked one of the speech pathologists recommended by the school. We are still in speech pathology 2 years later but are making good progress.

[Dylan's Mummy]

Has he been spending time with other kids who talk like that? My SS has gone through stages where his speech is different. He did have a lisp stage afters spending time with a friend's child who has a lisp. Another time he started saying a lot of DJ's like t's, for example he would say "Datty" instead of "Daddy". There was another speech issue that he had picked up too. With the last 2 I had spoken to his teacher about it and asked if anyone he was friends with talked like that and she said that he was. I just made sure I corrected him and made him repeat what he said correctly and he eventually stopped.

[~Elphaba~]

Could it be an adenoid problem? My friend was telling me her daughter was speaking differently (she's 3) and had gone a bit deaf due to tonsils and adenoid issues - she is on the wait list to have it rectified.

Definitely get it checked out. (and I have no idea how to spell adenoids and CBF looking it up, so sorry if it's wrong and any doctors are reading...)

ETA: Or it could be like my nearly 5 year old who has developed a very very strong American accent due to watching too many Transformer reviews on youtube... Totally innnocent but hugely irritating despite it's cuteness because people ask which of his parents is American, when we both speak like a cross between Steve Irwin and Julia Gillard (ie v Ocker).

This post has been edited by ~Elphaba~: 18/01/2013, 08:42 AM

[Dylan's Mummy]

Another reason could be that he is talking too quickly to be clearly understood, my SS does this sometimes too.

[~Elphaba~]

Yes, they can appear out of nowhere.

DS developed a mild stutter at 4 (still being treated at nearly 6) and has only very recently developed a couple of verbal tics.

I would definitely get it checked out.

elephaba, my son has a Canadian accent some of the time - mostly vowel heavy words like 'about' (he says it more like 'aboot'). There's no reason for it, but geeze it's funny. People constantly comment on it too

At least they are too young for people to call them pretentious lol. My sister calls him her little exchange student...

His 17 year old sister flew back to her Dad interstate yesterday, and he was really sad, so we had a special "Mum and son" day, playing games all morning. Then I got him a Happy Meal as a special treat. When his dad got home he was showing him the happy meal toy he got from "Burger King". Now for one, it's Hungry Jacks, for two, it was McDonalds, and for 3, he pronounced it "Brgr King". I have really got to do something about limiting time watching those youtube reviews when I'm doing housework....

[Lucretia Borgia]

elephaba, my son has a Canadian accent some of the time - mostly vowel heavy words like 'about' (he says it more like 'aboot'). There's no reason for it, but geeze it's funny. People constantly comment on it too

Yes my DS (6) does this....not sure what the accent is.....but "first" will come out as "forst" ...we used to think it was cute, so we never corrected him! We correct him now...

DS will also take on accents of kids he is around, we recently stayed with an American family and he started saying words with an American accent.....he will adopt a certain way of talking or speech patterns of people he is around...also, in situations where he is unsure of himself or nervous (first day of kindy, a situation where there are lots of kids but he doesn't any of them) he will revert to a kind of baby talk, it's annoying but I know why he is doing it....

So I think some changes in speech patterns etc can be normal, but trust your instinct and if you are worried get it checked out....

[lsolaBella]

.

This post has been edited by lsolaBella: 18/01/2013, 09:11 AM

[countrymel]

Hungry Jacks and Burger King are the same. Originally came about when someone wanted to bring the Burger King franchise to Aust, but there was already a place with rights to Burger King here so it became Hungry Jacks. Then later on the name rights changed and Burger King was also introduced.

I don't think elphaba's son was referencing that particular bit of predetory pre-emptive market control though do you?

Although considering it was MacDonalds who bought the rights to the Burger King name perhaps he was being super ironic?

No.

No I don't think so...