What can your preschooler say? Now, I’m not talking about nice big words like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious here, even though we’re big fans of Mary Poppins these days. No, I’m talking about enunciation.
My daughter has a name that is difficult for small children to pronounce. More specifically, she has a name that has an “or” sound in the middle of it. She pronounces this sound as “ow,” leading most people think that her name is something else entirely. Needless to say, this is very irritating for a four-year-old. Now, when people ask her what her name is, she spells it for them. Loudly. Repeatedly. And with a very intent look on her face.
I was curious to know if her enunciation challenges were normal. I don’t expect her to speak perfectly, but since she is irritated by the fact that people don’t understand her, I thought that I would take a look.
For the record, your three-year-old should be able to say the sounds p,b,m,n,d,g and h.
Your four-year-old should be able to say the sounds k,t,th,f,v,j.ch, and ng.
The sounds that are challenging include sh and zh, which most five-year-olds can pronounce. Your child may need to practice until age seven before she can say the letters l,r,s, and th.
Poor kid. We named her just about the most challenging name for a little person to pronounce. Oh well, it’s a challenge.
One cute anecdote comes from this, however. My daughter is learning how to spell and she is enjoying sounding out words. The other day, she was playing a spelling eye spy game with her grandparents. She said that she was looking for something that started with the letter w. They couldn’t see anything. She pointed to a car parked next to them and said with great consternation, “See! A wacing car!”