My oldest boy Henry is almost 7 and still has some funkiness in the way he pronounces words. Usually all it takes is a simple reminder, and he stops saying “lellow” and remembers to say “yellow.”
The word “first” is a completely different story. He simply cannot pronounce it any other way than “forst.” (Is he German?) Reminding him doesn’t work, modelling it doesn’t work. Saying “It sounds just like ‘thirst’” doesn’t work as he also says “thorst.”
The only way I’ve found to get him close to the correct pronunciation is to tell him to say it like a pirate. What does that mean? Well, you just insert a “grrrrr” noise in the middle.
So now when he says “forst” I say “say it like a pirate!” and he says “frrrrrrrst!”
And that, my friends, is why I will never be a speech therapist. But who cares. I have a kid who talks like a pirate.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
My 9 year old has the bawbwa wawa syndrome..r’s and w’s reversed. He’s grown out of it somewhat but there’s certain words that throw him off.
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Mine say lellow too! I wish they talked like pirates. :(
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Well Erika, I AM a speech therapist (For REALS!) and I’ve used “pirate talk” many a time to get the /r/ sound. And just think, you thought that up without an expensive Master’s Degree in Speech Pathology.
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Jennifer, Really? Hilarious! Nice to know I have another career to fall back on if this whole “typing on teh internets” thing craps out!
LOL I love it!
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I thought speech therapists did whatever it took? Sounds like a professional approach to me.
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Erika,
Brilliant, I say! Terrific approach to speech therapy! Any suggestions for how to get Rowan and Zach to correctly pronounce “s” and “f”? (Their preschool teacher thinks this is an issue — and I tend to think it is NOT an issue, since they aren’t even 3 years old yet!) If anything comes to mind as to how to teach them to say “s” as in “sat” (instead of “hat”) and “f” as in “fish” (instead of “hish”), that would be cool. And I could coax them by saying “Auntie Erika says…”
Marilyn
Hey Marilyn,
Our ped said not to worry about that kind of mild speech stuff until kindergarten. So I’d just say you could occasionally remind them of the right way to say it, but wait and ask their kindergarten teacher what they think. Oh, and just smile politely when the preschool peeps raise the issue :)
See you at Xmas.
This is hilarious!
My 6 year old has a few speech quirks that are minor and I’ve yet to openly correct because I dread the loss of them. “It” instead of “if” is one. (It ya want to, we can play Star Wars!) The other is gwist for just. Gwist give me a minute. I gwist want to have one more.
Oh my baby.
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See, I disagree. It’s creative thinking to come up with fun ways to get kids to pronounce words correctly. I think you would make a terrific speech therapist. It’s all about making it fun for the kid, kind of like Tom Sawyer, so they don’t realize they’re “working”.
Tina
popped over here from playgroups favorites …
i’m a speech therapist too!
and i have used that one as well…
it’s all about using what you can to get the desired response. and then reminding them to keep it up.
and you don’t even have the school loans to do it … lucky you.
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Sometimes it’s really hard to teach my child proper pronunciation because I just love hearing her incorrectly pronounce some words. Now that she’s learning to talk properly, I kinda miss those times when she’d say Gud Moyning Mommy! I guess we have to cherish these moments.
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My 7 year old has difficulty pronouncing “s”. I am looking for suggestions on how to correct this.