When do you start to get concerned?

My youngest DS is 4 in March. He is a very bright boy, his comprehension and language is well above where he should be.
His speech is clear and he is understandable but he cannot pronounce his 'Ls'. Well in particular Cl or Fl etc, he can say words that start with L fine but l's in a word he struggles with.
He will say 'chose' instead of close or frag instead of flag.
I know there are some letters/sounds that are common for kids to take a while to get the hang of, is this one of them? When do you start to worry about it?

I have a summary of this at work. I'll try and remember to get it tomorrow and summaries it in here for you.

Pretty sure that it's only if they get to six or seven and don't have all their sounds that you need to worry. But I'll put a reminder in my phone right now and get back to you. :)

My DP was getting antsy about DS last year when he still wouldn't pronounce 'r' and gave a 'w' sound, as well as a 'zh' or 'sh' sound for 's' (kind of like a lisp, but not iykwim!). I asked him not to make a big deal of it but he did anyway, and then DS was going around exaggerating 'ssssss' to get his dad's approval and I told him not to worry about it. So, he did. Guess who came into 's' in his own good time when he stopped stressing about it??
I'd probably wait until the front baby teeth have fallen out and the second teeth have come through to make any assessments on pronunciation. But that's just me, because I don't trust nurses and paeds and their habit of misdiagnosing and then ordering a battery of assessments that end up being a waste of time ;)

my DD2 is 4 in March and doesn't say "F" sounds and swaps them with a "P". TBH I'll miss it when she no longer asks for pish and chips for dinner!

I think its pretty common at their age to still have some oddities to their language. DD1 is 12 months older so I have a really good forward window of what DD2 is going to go through. DD1 has had a huge language improvement over the last year so I'm not worried about pishes just yet.

My daughter 4yo has a slight lisp when saying 's' words but I think she will grow out of it as her pronounciation becomes clearer. I don't make a big deal about it b/c I don't want her to become aware of it then it become a problem. I know my brother had some speech issues when younger and it developed into a larger problem whereby he almost started stuttering b/c people made a big deal about it & he become paranoid. I wouldn't worry too much about it but you could always take him to the GP for a referral and a hearing test to put your mind at ease. I would just repeat the correct pronounciation but not point it out ITMS? ie: he says 'chose' you say oh, 'close' then move on.

ohhh my DS is the same and also 4 in march. He has always been complimented on his pronounciation and I was starting to get worried cause I wasn't sure if he 'regressed' or it was just a normal developmental thing.
He has problems with saying "th" sound and will often say 'v' instead of 'f' and is also saying a 'w' instead of 'r' like your LO Maya. I figured some of it he is playing with the sounds and the way he says things but wasn't sure :dunno:

those sorts of blended sounds tend to take longer, yeah. He's probably still in teh normal range. you can check with your CHN :)

Spotted this thread and had to reply cos I just took dd fot 3.5 yr visit to maternal child health nurse & asked similar question. She showed me diagram of when kids learn to say certain sounds. Ability to say 'L' only develops from 3.5- 4.5 yrs of age. Eg so kids often say 'lellow' instead of 'yellow'. My dd says 'yets go'! 'TH' is a sound learnt between 5- 8 yrs old! Interesting hey? Hope this helps u.

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Awesome thank you so much! I wasnt over concerned yet but then thought "hmmmmm maybe I should be?"

My friend has her little girl seeing a speech therapist but she is 6 now so I dont think I will panic until then.

What did I do before BB huh? Worry unnecessarily I think :rolleyes:

Well My DS also 4 in March and he has trouble saying R words. So he will say its waining not raining. We practice saying Ra Ra Ra Raining and then he will just pop out waining and we have given up.

My nephew who is 5, can't say T words at all, its always Fruck not Truck which can be a bit confusing to people who don't know him.
He also still finds other words hard to pronounce and mumbles a lot. I am sure he will get better now he is at school though.

Oh dear... I forgot to post the sheets I promised....

Here's the info from them... I got this from some Speech Pathologists I work with - seriously... a trustworthy resource ;)

I have a good PDF that's pictorial, with similar information.... but too hard to stick in here.... if anyone would like that they can PM me with email address and I can send through.

Hope this info helps!!

Speech Sound Development

Early 8
· /m/ as in “mama”
· /n/ as in “no”
· “y” as in “you”
· /b/ as in “baby”
· /w/ as in “we”
· /d/ as in “daddy”
· /p/ as in “pop”
· /h/ as in “hi”
Emerging development between ages 1 - 3 with consistent production around age 3


Middle 8
· /t/ as in “two”
· “ng” as in“running”
· /k/ as in “cup”
· /g/ as in “go”
· /f/ as in “fish”
· /v/ as in “van”
· “ch” as in “chew”
· “j” as in “jump”
Emerging development between ages 3 - 6 ½ with consistent production by around 5 ½


Late 8
· “sh” as in “sheep”
· /s/ as in “see”
· “th” as in “think”
· “th” asin “that”
· /r/ as in “red”
· /z/ as in “zoo”
· /l/ as in “like”
· “zh”as in “measure”
Emerging development between ages 5 – 8 with consistent production by around age 7 ½

(Shriberg, 1993)