toddler not speaking clearly

hello - my son is a month over two yrs. and has a great vocabulary. He

Nikki...

This is a very good sign!!

Nikki...

Another good sign!!

A rule of thumb is that at 24mos 50-75% of speech should be intelligible to
parents. There are lots and lots of articulation errors that are very
common. He doesn't have to pronounce it perfectly, you just need to be able
to understand it.

My older son had a speech delay and I'll always regret not getting him
evaluated sooner. It never hurts to follow up if you think there is a
problem.

comes up with new words all the time and I can even get him to repeat
words back to me. He follows simple commands but sometimes "ignores"
me (but don't we all ignore someone at some point during the day?).
His vocabulary isn't my issue, it's his speaking - it's just not clear.

PattyMomVA...

So, it sounds like you understand him? Or else you wouldn't have any idea
what his vocabulary is like.

What I would do is to begin to work with him on enunciation. You don't have
to go all out and insist that he pronounce every word clearly, but I think
you can encourage good pronunciation, one word or two at a time. This is

Irrational Number...

Be very gentle when you do this, if at all...

My BIL stuttered because MIL thought she was
doing the right thing by constantly correcting
his speech...

PattyMomVA...

Anita, I think it's ridiculous to make such a leap from my suggestion. If
your toddler was hitting his friend, you'd help him learn to use gentle
hands. If he's mispronouncing words, you help him pronounce them correctly.
Of course I don't advocate belittling anyone. I was very careful to suggest
the OP work on one or two words at a time. That has nothing to do with
constantly correcting speech or making the child self-conscious. It's about
working with your child first rather than assuming he'll need specialists.

-Patty, mom of 1+2

something I did with DD, and she really enjoyed and benefited from it. Just
begin with something he frequently garbles, and show him with your mouth how
to make the sounds. Try and get him to repeat after you. Unless there's
something very difficult about that particular word, I would think he could
get it down after a few days if you remind him. Then, try another word.

Penny Gaines...

My reaction is that perhaps the boy was reading the word incorrectly,
rather then pronouncing "caterpillar" wrong. The mum may have been
making him re-read it until he got it close enough to recognise
the word for himself.

bizby40...

I don't think so. IIRC, she enunciated it for him and had him repeat
it after her. It was many years ago, so I can't remember exactly how
he pronounced it, but I know I could understand what he meant
perfectly well. Oh, well, there are worse things you can do to a kid.

For a while in our household, the Egyptian queen known by Julius Ceasar
was called Cletrapedia, because that was how they pronounced it when
they read the book "Asterix and Cleopatra".

Cathy Weeks...

Isn't it funny how childish mis-pronunciations get integrated
into families. My baby phrase was "I lub boo" (I love you). My whole
family said that, including my parents, and many years later, my
brothers, too. It's as if we all knew two phrases "I love you" and "I
lub boo" and the latter was just a family endearment or something.
What's funny, is that my *husband* picked it up from me, because he
thought it was really cute, and now *he* says it, and so does my
daughter. We all know the right phrase, including my little one, but
it's just something we say among the family.

Another similar one, is a mispronunciation by my stepson - he called
mushrooms "muppers" when we was little, and one time when my husband
was ordering pizza, he ordered it with muppers - and then had to deal
with the embarrassment of having said the baby word instead of the real
thing, to the guy on the phone, who of course, didn't understand him!
:-)

One of my favorites - though this didn't get propogated - was my
brother's: Wind-Wheel-Shipers (Windshield wipers) and Mazagine
(magazine).

Cathy Weeks

-Patty, mom of 1+2

Daddy is still dada and i'm mama, and certain words like quack, woof,
and a few others are identifiable but the majority of his words are
blurred. He'll go on a tirade in his elfish language and along the way
i can pick out only a handful of words. All the other kids in his
class are around his age or younger - he's the second to oldest, and
everyone speaks more clearly. His vocabulary beats out some of the
other kids' but even the kid who can only say two words is clearer.
His hearing hasn't been checked since he was a newborn, and we read at
least two books before nap AND before bedtime and we talk all the time
(even though i can't understand a word of it most of the time - any
thoughts?

Welches...

Do you refer to yourself as "mama" or "mummy"? Do you say "quack" when you
see a duck?
#1 said "mama" for ages (I think she was nearly 2) because I tended to say
"mama", but I think #2 said "mummy" nearly straight away, because that's
what she heard.
If he points to a duck and says "quack" then I'd reply with "yes, it's a
duck". That way you're not saying that he's wrong, but you are giving him
the correct word.
I would also suggest you talk to a friend that knows you and him well. Ask
how much he is understandable. They might understand more than you think.
I'm a little confused that you say he's got a great vocab, but then say you
can't understand a word most of the time. I'm assuming you don't really mean
that you can't understand him.
I'm assuming that what you mean is that he's not understandable to anyone
outside family. My brother had a speech problem-he'd come up to you and say
"ah oo eem ind" (have you seen my drink" and we'd all understand, but not
others.
(I'm assuming you don't mean that it's along the lines of a lady I knew
whose 6 month baby would go "bababababma" and she'd (seriously) translate
for you "she said she likes your pretty skirt"-she got very upset if people
didn't believe her too)
If it's the former then, yes, you might need speech therepy, but it will
come. My mum was told with my brother that if the words were there then
there's no problem. A child who says 2 words clearly is more likely to have
long term problems than a child who says a lot indistinctly.
I think #1 wasn't very understandable to others at 18 months, but by 22
months everyone could understand her. She didn't need help. #2 was always
pretty clear, but, at nearly 3 she still has some sounds she can't say (like
"sh" and "f") so she may need help to develop that.
Debbie

-L....

My son is 2 3/4 and is the same way - huge vocabulary - not always
clear. Don't sweat it. I have noticed that in the last 3 weeks or so
his enunciation has improved. Some kids just don't have the
mouth/tongue control until a bit later. He excels at other things -as
I am sure your son does, too. :)

hedgehog42...

Keep an eye (an ear?) on it, but I wouldn't worry just yet. But did
your son have ear infections as a baby? If so, the fluid in the ears
may have garbled what he heard during that crucial time when a baby's
learning to distinguish between sounds. My son, for instance, regularly
subbed a "d" for other consonents -- "diredighter" for "firefighter".

Our ped picked up on my worry without me ever saying anything -- it
was just part of his regular overall checkup, I think at 3 YO. Doc had
nurse show the kid flashcards to name a series of objects; based on the
percentage she indicated she couldn't understand, he would be referred
to the school district for evaluation for speech therapy.

Problem was, though I didn't realize it at the time, my son was pretty
chatty and outgoing. He charmed the nurse with smiles and chatter, so
she then did exactly what the relatives did -- minimize the difficulty
she was having in understanding him! (i.e., kid said "drapes" for a
bunch of grapes, and she said, "oh, grapes, OK, got that one") Doc
looked unconvinced when she said kid was fine -- he made a note to
retest at next well-kid checkup. With a different nurse that time, we
got the referral.

an588...

Poorly designed test. The person listening to the child
should not be able to see the picture; they should have
to guess what the child is saying, and maybe write it
down before looking at the picture to see whether they
were right.

IIRC, when we went in for that evaluation, the standard the
pathologists used for qualifying for speech therapy was if an outsider
could understand only 70-75% of the words kid was saying in
conversation. She noted that it's very common for family to be able to
understand more than that. (Again, though, that's closer to 3 YO than 2
YO)

Lori G.
Milwaukee, WI

JennP...

Honestly? That he sounds within normal range for speech at his age. If he
gets older and his speech doesn't get more clear then you probably should
ask your ped.

Of course, there is the birth to three program (or whatever they call it in
your state) and if you are really concerned then ask your ped and they can
refer you if they feel there is a problem. He is only one month over two
though, and jumbled speech can still be pretty common.

FWIW, my next door neighbor's boy spoke gobbedly gook (they claimed they
understood him) until he was almost 2.5 but one day he was just clear as a
bell. HTH

Jen...

I used to have a chart, that I got from college when training to be a
childcare worker. It showed the common mistakes in pronunciation, and the
age they usually got it right. I can't remember exactly now, but it was
common for kids to struggle with a couple of sounds all the way up to around
7 yo. There were a lot of difficulties in the younger age group. This
chart was used to measure the milestones in development and help to judge if
there was a problem.

I personally wouldn't worry *too much* - within reason, until they're in
kinder. There's always speech therapy available then.

My daughter used to substitute most words with a *y* at the start. Most of
the time we'd understand it, but the teacher had trouble. Speech therapy
worked very quickly. She now talks pretty much perfectly. She's 11 next
week. She also does really well in her studies, she hasn't gotten behind
because of it.