[tel2]

Hi there....

At what age did your child say the "SP" sound and pronounce words such as spider, spoon, spaghetti correctly ????

My 4 year old DD can't say "SP" and replaces it with "FA" Eg spider becomes fader etc...

We have just recently started speech therpay for this problem (that we have had for close to a year and a bit now) and the therapist did say that it was young sound that she should've mastered by now.

Thanks for you help

[-*meh*-]

Hi there....

At what age did your child say the "SP" sound and pronounce words such as spider, spoon, spaghetti correctly ????

My 4 year old DD can't say "SP" and replaces it with "FA" Eg spider becomes fader etc...

We have just recently started speech therpay for this problem (that we have had for close to a year and a bit now) and the therapist did say that it was young sound that she should've mastered by now.

Thanks for you help

my DS1 is 4.5yrs and has a phonological speech delay (very common one is swapping sounds over). One of his main ones he can't say is "sp" along with "b", "f" and a few others.

It is a common delay though, and one the speech thearpist says is quite an easy one to correct.

[SeaPrincess]

DS1 turned 4 in December and used to say ps instead of sp, so it was psider, psot, pslat.

Sometime late last year, he just stopped doing it and got them right, but he was close to 4 when it happened.

ETA there are still sounds that he gets wrong, eg wock for rock.

R

This post has been edited by shmach: 29/02/2012, 07:20 PM

[Wild Strawberry]

DS2 is 5 in 6 weeks and can't say it. For spider he says bider. Although he is also at speech therapy so maybe not the best person to compare to

ETA - He has started to pick it up lately but not consistently

This post has been edited by Wild Strawberry: 29/02/2012, 07:21 PM

[HoneyMurcott]

Our DD did what's referred to as 'cluster reduction' where she dropped the 's' sound and started with the 'p' sound in an 'sp' blend. Eg pider/spider, pateman/spaceman. She did this for all 's' blends. Eg tar/star, wan/swan, mile/smile. From memory this should disappear from speech around 3.5years (but don't hold me to that!). What your son is doing is slightly different in that he's substituting another consonant for the 's'. I think the 'milestone' for this is a little earlier. That said if he can make a long 'sssss' sound I think it's reasonably easy to fix. Lots of practice words wit the reminder "I didn't hear the snake at the beginning of that word". This was the first issue (of a very long list) with DD's speech our therapist tackled.

[tel2]

Thanks ladies for your replies.

She is doing well with the excerises however doesn't really wanna do them. Hrmmm not sure whether to continue with speech therapy especially when it seems to me a lot of young children have some kind of word mispronouncation that they eventually outgrow. I have never met an adult who says fider LOL

Any thoughts ??? As I am confused now.

[HoneyMurcott]

Does she only have problems with the 'sp' blend at the beginning of the word or does she have other difficulties? Did the speech pathologist do a complete assessment a the start of therapy? What did it identify?

[tel2]

HoneyMurcott,

The speech therapist asked me what the problem was was my DD. I said she can't say SP and also her fluency isn't the best lots of umms and ah's between sentances and words and to me sometimes it seems she is stuttering.

She said with stuttering mostly they don't treat it until after a year or so of it being around and/or if it affects her. DD has only had it for about 8 weeks now and the speechie said she might outgrow it.

With the "SP" sounds she said that DD (4) should have already mastered this however with some kids it can take up to 6, but we can do some exercises to help her along.

She did an articulation test on her and also found that she couldn't say TH and a few other things but wasn't too concerned about that.

I dont know if we should go back or just let it go. DD today has started saying Pider. so now she;s cutting out letters . Don't know if these exercises are doing more harm then good

[HoneyMurcott]

Technically 'cluster reduction' which is what your DD is doing now by dropping the 's' sound is actually progress. She was previously substituting another unrelated consonant. Now she's just missing one but all the sounds currently in the word now 'belong'. She just needs to remember the 'snake sound' and she's got it. What she's done is a 'natural' progression ..... it would usually just happen over a 6-12 month period and you wouldn't really notice.

If she did a full articulation analysis there might be a few other sounds she can work on to increase her clarity. But she wouldn't be worried by 'th' because that's not expected until children are 6-8years. For me I'd tend to see out the term. If she's making progress - which I think she is - I'd keep it up till then. But I can be a bit stubborn like that