QUESTION…
I work with two brothers and am worried about their speech development.
The elder child is four years old and even his parents find him difficult to understand. When talking, he’ll say ‘big’ for ‘pig’, he misses off the beginning of words and finds it difficult to copy sounds.
The younger brother is aged three. I understand most of what he says but he cannot make ‘r’ and ‘l’ sounds. He’ll say ‘wabbit’ instead of ‘rabbit’ and ‘lellow’ instead of ‘yellow’.
I’m wondering if I should be concerned.
It can be hard to know when children are having difficulties with their speech as it is a complex process that requires co-ordination and development of muscles in the mouth. Most children will be seven years old before they have mastered all of the speech sounds.
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