20090907 Babycenter article on toddler mispronounces words

Extracted from

http://www.babycenter.com/404_should-i-worry-that-my-toddler-mispronounces-many-words_69451.bc

A 2-year-old will typically mispronounce just about any word. Most toddlers can say "p," "b," and "m" sounds easily because they can watch your lips and see how the sounds are formed. Consonants such as "k" and "g" are tough for toddlers, because they're produced at the back of the mouth, and your child can't actually see how to make the sound. Producing a "t" instead of a "k" is a common substitution and is nothing to be worried about unless your child is still doing it past the age of 5. Other sounds that may present difficulties for your child between now and the time he turns 3 include



* "r" pronounced as a "w," such as "wabbit" instead of "rabbit"

--> oh yes.. "mommy woll" when she is talking about rolling.

* "l" pronounced as a "w" or a "y," such as "yeg" instead of "leg"



* "s" lisped as a "th" sound, such as "thun" instead of "sun"

--> "thool" instead of stool. "nake" instead of snake.


* "sh" pronounced as an "s," such as "sip" instead of "ship"



* "ch" pronounced as a "sh," such as "wash" instead of "watch"



* "g" pronounced as a "d," such as "dame" instead of "game"



* "v" pronounced as a "b," such as "ban" instead of "van"



* "f" pronounced as a "p," such as "pish" instead of "fish"



* consonant blends such as tr, dr, sl, sn, sm, st, bl mispronounced by leaving one of the sounds off ("stop" becomes "top" or "sop")



* consonants in the middle of words left out, so "baseball" becomes "bayball"



* words with more than one syllable shortened or simplified, so "Emily" becomes "Memmy" or "Emmy"



Sometimes the difficulty in pronunciation has less to do with a particular letter sound than with the organization of the word itself. For example, your child may say "Dadda" or "Daddy," so you know he can make a "d" sound, yet he pronounces "dog" as "gog." In fact, he's mispronouncing it because the "g" sound comes right after it. Since the "d" is pronounced in the front of the mouth and the "g" is pronounced in the back, saying "dog" requires some tongue gymnastics that may be hard for your 2-year-old.