Reply to Twenty-month-old with extremely poor enunciation

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
[quote]No need for concern yet. Don't correct him like if he says wah-wah, don't say "no, say Water" but repeat it after him.

Son: I wan wah-wah 
 You: you want water? Okay, let's get some.

This is excellent advice. Also, get his ears checked by a specialist. 
[/quote]

Look up your local Childfind specialist.  My son didn't enunciate well at that age and had an undiagnosed ear fluid problem.  We didn't get him evaluated because our pediatrician wasn't concerned, but it has had some lasting effects.  He ended up with ear tubes and speech therapy, but his speech impediment is noticeable.  [/quote]

Yeah, I'm the PP who also had this experience. I can attest that there is a difference between a young toddler who says all her words wrong (like calls it a bah-na instead of banana), versus a kid like my son who has a global articulation issue (he says banana, but it sounds wrong). Because of his ear fluid, he never learned how to make an O shape with his mouth - like literally couldn't pucker his lips together to blow out a candle at age 3. He also didn't put his tongue up behind his teeth when making all of those sounds (L, T, N eg). So try saying "banana" but with your tongue jutting outside your teeth. You're still saying banana, but wrong. It turns out that because his hearing was so muffled from the fluid, he didn't have to work his mouth muscles hard to replicate those sounds. So he never used or built up those muscles, and now can't really use them without therapy. He probably would have grown out of it by age 6 or so, but that's a long time to ride it out.

Also to those who just say, oh no big deal because your pediatrician didn't flag it.... yeah, that's not really very comforting. Pediatricians aren't really experts in anything other than the day to day stuff like colds and shots, but are really just goal keepers for major issues. They're not going to know the difference between the normal kid above who says "bah-na" versus my son who says banana.  If your gut says there is something amiss, see an audiologist and speech therapist. [/quote]

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