How can I help my precocious 34 mo old properly form the sounds for letters l,c,r,v,z,g,k,q?

Question

She has had an advanced vocabulary since 10 months of age, however the letter L sounds like 'w', C and K sound like "T" R sounds like "w", V sounds like "b", Z sounds like "j", G sounds like "T", and Q sounds like "f". What exercises can I do, or games can I play with her to help her better structure these sounds?

Answer 1

It's normal for her at this age.  If in a year or year and half she has problems, seek out speech therapy.  You may meet a little resistance even then, but it is WAY too early to worry about it now.  

Looking in the mirror at this age is way too early developmentally, too. That's not a technique to really be used even with a five year old.

Answer 2

Have you had her look in a mirror while she is talking?  First have her watch you and discuss what your tongue is doing.  For example for the /l/ sound... Look at my mouth, listen.../l/.  My tongue is quickly touching the roof of my mouth behind my teeth.  (Use vocab that she is able to comprehend).  Then have her look in a, preferably hand-held mirror and try to imitate.  Do /w/ right afterwards.  Look at my mouth, listen.../w/.  I am only moving my lips like a quiet fish in the water.  Continue in this matter.  Discuss which sounds are "soft" sounds and which are "hard" sounds.  

I found with the children I work with is when I hear it I point it out, say it correctly, and have them try.  Usually they'll get it at least once and  you praise.  Having them watch me exaggerate the sound is very funny to them and they usually pick it up quite quickly.  

Try using alliteration sentences...for example...wee willie winkie for the W sound.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Give her some time and a learning environment for a few hours a week. If it continues to worry you have her evaluated by a speech therapists.

Answer 4

I have a bachelors in childhood speech and language development, and while Im no expert I can tell you that. females almost always develop speech and language skills before boys, so the fact that your daughter has advanced language skills comes as no surprise; but I understand that as a mother you are concerned and want your child to continue with her rate of development.

So this is my advice. Focus on her language development, as opposed to her speech. Articulation skills aren't nearly as important as her ability to communicate. The key here is that speech is still developing ! And based upon what your telling me about her overall development these speech sounds will come into play soon .... perhaps sooner than the average.

Do not worry about L's , R's , W's some children dont develop these sounds until well into the school years believe it or not. These are what we call liquid/gliding sounds and because they are so closely related to vowels, it is difficult for children to get the correct placement without distortions of some kind. I could explain all the letters you mentioned I guess but that would take forever. I just mention those three b/c they are of least concern.

What you might be concerned about are the K and G sounds. Your daughter is doing a process that is called fronting, which is a relatively normal process and she may out grow it, but to ensure that she does you may want to try (forgive me I forget the technical term) but Im going to call it "meaning replacement technique".

Basically find a meaningful object to your daughter that has the target sound in it (and remember we are concerned with K and G) so for example say she loves cookies but she is referring to them as "tookies" or "tooties" whatever the error is. Create a new object with the name "tookie". (Example buy a new doll and name it tookie). So whenever she asks you for a cookie and calls it a tookie you hand her the doll. This will fustrate her at first, but soon she will understand that the /k/ sound is meaningful and thats she gonna have to find a way to change it to a K sound to get what she wants.

WARNING !!! Only try this if you think she is capable of making the sound, and use good judgement, as this may cause pyschological avoidance and she may never try to improve. Best way to judge this is to listen to her speech casually and see if you pick up an occasional K or G sound. This way you know she can make the sound she just needs to put it in the right place.

Answer 5

let her be a baby, when she goes to preschool she will learn

Answer 6

Let her listen to cassettes of sound words. Its best if she watches movies about sound words. An easier way would be letting her see your tongue while saying the sound. She'll love that and she will be benefiting too!

Answer 7

It is normal at her age to not be able to say the letter sounds you are talking about .  If you are really concerned , you should contact the school district in the area your child will attend elementary school. Most school districts offer speech therapy. At least you could find out if you have any thing to be concerned about.

I am impressed how well you "hear " your child's speech issues. I don't think I was at all that in tune when my kids were younger.

Answer 8

3 year olds are truly not responsible for many sounds and will grasp those as she matures. Don't worry -the sounds will come. She can't be helped with those sounds before the appropriate age as you don't know yet if she will outgrow it or not.  At the age of 4, they are responsible for more sounds and can find speech therapy if they qualify.  The only things we have ever qualified a child for in speech that young would be excessive stuttering where they are trying to stop it themselves or grunting rather than actual speech. Sounds like your child has a heads up on vocab and speech already.  

There are games you can play - such as manipulating a cheerio in your mouth or putting it on the roof of your mouth.  But, again, the child needs to be mature enough to not just eat it!!

Answer 9

This is very normal speech development.  The most important thing that you can do is to not stress about it.  The child will pick up on your anxiety.  She is fine, but if you worry her, she may develop a problem.  Also, try not to talk about your concerns in front of her.  If she hears you talking about her disordered speech (even if she doesn't seem to be listening, she probably is, she sounds bright and aware)it may become

part of her identity that her speech is disordered.

Singing lots of songs, reading lots of poetry, and reading and telling stories is excellent.  Playing rhyming games is good for phonetic awareness.  Correcting is not necessary or helpful.

Also, many parents do not know that sippy cups keep the oral muscles from developing properly.  She should be using a regular cup all the time by now.

It sounds like you can understand her, which is the most important thing.  Have fun with your precious precocious little one.

Answer 10

Although she has a good vocabulary she may just be too young to grasp the concept of some phonics and probably doesn't fully understand what she's learning anyway - what's the hurry? Let her be a 3 year old and pursue it when she's a bit older. I totally agree with encouraging children in learning - but not pushing it, as she's obviously advanced I'm sure she'll be excellent when she starts preschool.

I apologise, I didn't quite understand the question, I presumed that you were teaching her letters in the 'reading style'.  My sister is a speech & language therapist, I will ask her and get back to you.

Hi, this is the response from my sister:-

"Yeah by 36 months a child's sound system is still developing, what is being described are normal articulation prcocess;

1.)the process where children pronounce /r/ and /l/ like /w/ is called gliding, instead of having to move the tongue back to pronounce those they'll just make a /w/ i don't think /r/ comes until 4 1/2 so you'll hear children saying 'wabbit' a lot, this sound should develop normally later

2.) The process where C/K sounds are pronounced as /t/ (and also where ?g/ is pronounced as /d/) is also normal and is called fronting because producing c/k and g required the back of the tongue to contact the back part of the roof of the mouth.

3.) v is bilabial voiced fricative ( a long whoosing sound made between the lips) whereas as b is a shorter sound.

4.) /z/ is again a sound that comes later and that fact that she can make /j/ is a good sign because it shows her tongue can move into that more tricky position.

There are lots of games you can play to promote better awareness of of the differences between these sounds.

The first thing is to establish whether the child can hear the differences (which she probably can), you can get rhyming pictures of sound pairs e.g. cap/tap gill(fish)/till and say one of the pairs and ask her to point to the picture of what you've said, and reward her with leap frogs for everyone she gets right or buckaroo pieces etc.

for v versus b you can have a long vs short game

To actually get her to produce /k/ and /g/ start with /k/ and try and get her to 'cough' it, laying down might help, to get her

to promote use of /z/ get her to say /s/ and then 'feel' the voicing in her throat (vibrations) although i wouldn't worry about this one as it's a later sound.

There's loads of letter/phonics books that create fun ways to recognise the differences between sounds. Also if she's a keen vocabulary learner then when learning new words you can think about what sounds are in them but on the whole.  oh and a quick exercise for producing /v/ is get her to put her top teeth on her bottom lip like a bunny rabbit it's again like a /f/ just 'feel' for the voicing, and on the whole don't push the issue as she's still young and the sound processes are normal and should mature in time"

Sorry it's so long but hope this helps =)

Answer 11

Most types of sounds are developmental.  She will grasp the correct sounds as she grows.  A lot of sounds are still not corrected until the age of 8.  If you are really concerned and would like a professional...go to your public school district and ask for the speech therapist assigned to your neighborhood school.  He/she will assess her, free of charge and will let you know if services are necessary in her preK years.  Like I said, most are developmental and will come with age.  In the mean time, don't put pressure on her to correct the sounds now.  Just use correct pronunciation with her as a good model.  My daughter (4 years) has a lisp.  I was told to have her put her tongue behind her teeth instead of under her teeth.  The therapist informed me to model it, have her do it only once in a while.  I was not to keep pressuring her with every word.  Good luck and congrats to your daughter for the high vocabulary!!