Dyslalia: My Son Mispronounces The Words

When a child has difficulty uttering certain sounds or substitutes for certain consonants, this can lead to overreactions and the stigma of a “troubled child” whose parents did not make the effort to correct their way of expressing themselves.

This is a theory that can be overturned in the light of science. If a child who is between 3 and 5 years old  mispronounces words that have the letters s, r, led, he may suffer from infantile dyslalia.

As a child grows, he acquires vocabulary. Her way of expressing herself enriches and each time she pronounces words better than when she learned to speak.

Of course, there will be certain sounds that are more complicated to make. However, with correct correction and stimulation, your child will be able to pronounce any word perfectly.

However, there are landmarks child development to help determine when the child has a problem even as  a child dislalia.

Dyslalia is a language disorder characterized by the difficulty that a child, between 3 and 5 years old, has to pronounce some sounds. Mainly, sounds involving consonants such as s, r, l and d.

How to identify dyslalia

This disorder can consist of the omission to simplify a combination of consonants, such as changing “globe” to “gobo”; or the characteristic substitution of the letter d for the letter r in certain words. For example, a child might say “dosa” instead of “rose”.

It is also convenient to know that there are different types of dyslalia. Thus, when dyslalia affects only one sound, as in the previous examples, it is classified as simple. However, when it affects multiple phonemes, it is classified as multiple.

There are also cases where the language of a child with dyslalia is so affected that it can be incomprehensible . Mainly for those who do not live with her and are unaware of the signals she uses to communicate with her parents.

Other times, dyslalia is multiple and impoverishes speech, making it difficult for specialists to diagnose the disorder.

From the developmental perspective, this disorder, above all, hinders the child’s development at school. That way, it’s likely that they won’t be able to understand what she means.

However,  children with dyslalia usually express themselves in a language that is characterized by a certain normality. They are able to express their ideas, but they stand out or persist in incorrect phonetic sounds or emissions.

Another point to highlight is that this disorder of the development of pronunciation presents itself without anatomical, motor or neurolinguistic problems.

dyslalia is  surmountable

It is also convenient to know that dyslalia  is the most common language disorder in children. He is the best known and the easiest to identify. Furthermore, according to data from the Spanish Association of Pediatrics, dyslalia is almost always transient.

The disorder has several stages within a child’s language development. It finally ends when the child learns to correctly pronounce all phonemes.

However, persistently mispronouncing certain phonemes after 4 years of life requires a specific study and approach.

Speech therapy intervention aims to prevent, diagnose, predict, treat and comprehensively assess human communication disorders. Always taking into account speech or language disorders.

Usually, the response to speech therapy treatment is favorable. However, in the case of dyslalia that persists for a longer time, if it does not impede the clarity of speech and if the child seeks spontaneous adaptations, it is better not to prolong this therapy.

Key points to care for dyslalia

• The first step in the process of diagnosing a child with language delay/disorder is to find out if we are facing a global disorder or limited only to language.
• There is no need to wait until age 3 to assess a language delay. This is because early intervention positively influences later evolution.
• Language disorder initially presents itself as a delay. If it persists and affects communication, then it is classified as a disorder.
• If the problem is not detected in preschool, it can negatively affect language learning. Later, the child may have difficulties in learning to read and write.

• Studies show that boys are only 1 to 2 months behind girls in vocabulary and grammar development.
• Children who live in families that use more than one language at home may show slight delays and mix up languages ​​at first.