Syllables

very normal. No need to worry about these sounds until about age 6 or 7 and he is extremely likely to grow out of it by then.

It is my understanding that this is still quite developmentally appropriate. My almost five year old has some difficulty with "th". I have had six year old students still having trouble with s blends and the speech language pathologist was not concerned at all. Still, being a M. can be nerve racking - if you are worried call and talk to the nurse at your pediatrician's office. They should be able to quickly clarify, and to give you a referall if needed. If you can understand your child I wouldn't stress too much.

That is a very common problem! It can be resolved with therapy and probably pretty quickly. Florida sponsors a free speech therapy program for young children. For the under 3 it is called Fiddlers. I can't remember what it is called for the over 3 year olds. But, you can call the USF speech department and they can tell you as they are the ones that do the therapy or sponsor the therapists and do all the paperwork. If you son goes to school, a therapist will come to that school and do a 30 minute session once a week for as long as it is needed or they reach a certain age (not sure of the age, but it is much older than 4). They will even go to his "real" school once he hits kindergarten and do the therapy. And - it is all FREE! They are great therapists!!! I speak from current experience as my 4 year old has the same problem!

Good luck and Happy Holidays!
Sam

Hi-
I am a speech therapist from Germany and as far as the /s/ + consonant or /sh/ syllables go there are also existent in the German language. Children are supposed to pronounce those correctly by the age of 5 years and you wouldn't intervene before that. A lot of children have problems with these sounds. Since you start Kindergarten with 5 years over here I would have him checked in the spring and try to do speech before Kindergarten starts - if necessary.

I can't really give you any words of wisdom but I can tell you that my 3 1/2 year old (4 in March) is similar. "Spoon" is "scoon" and "stool" is "school." I actually enjoy the mispronunciations because, despite my daughter's claims that she "is a BIG girl", it reminds me how little she still is. I did read someplace (although I can't pinpoint the site right now) that mispronunciation of consonant blends is fairly common up until age 5. If I were you, I wouldn't worry about it (and this is coming from someone who worries about EVERYTHING!!) Best of luck!!

Dear P O

My 4 yr old has trouble with woord like spoon also he says Stoon. and also words like airplane he says aircrane ,, So I think it is normal. He is very smart and loves to learn . So I think it will come around in time .
hope this helps

Happy holidays
Christy

I agree withe the other posts, its normal. My son had a hard time with "L", (Aunt "Lisa" was Aunt "Wisa") for a long time and also the "th" sound at the end of a word. ("with " would be "wiff"). It was cute, but I am a stickler for grammar and spelling, so I would have him practice forming the sounds (putting his tongue towards his top teeth to form an "L") Some sounds are harder than others and eventually they will figure it out. My son is six now, and has no problem with it.

I would take him to a sp/lang pathologist so she can see what is going on. Some sounds are developmental and will come in later but if these sounds are ones he should have already had then he can be phonological and spelling will be a nightmare for him because he will try to spell words the way he hears himself making them instead of correctly spelling them. It's really best to evaluate early to avoid learning disabilities.