GD is behind in her speech

Could be worth asking your daughter if she thinks it would be helpful for her DD to see a speech therapist?

Health visitors can refer, they might have picked up on the speech delay if your DD booked the appts (I know some parents who hate the HV and don’t set them up).

My child is only 18 months but delayed on speech. Speech therapists won’t see them until 2+

I think we're going to see a lot more of this shortly, to be honest. What you have to bear in mind that your GD has spent two years of her little life not having the same social interactions as toddlers normally would at that age. I come into contact with a good few early years professionals through work now, and they are all saying the same. Young children around that age have missed out on such a lot because of the pandemic - and even mask-wearing is bound to have a knock-on effect too, because they cannot see facial expressions, how the mouth looks when sounding certain words and so on. I'm sure the school will pick up on it if they see it as a problem though. Try not to worry too much.

This reminds me of my nephew, getting on for 50 years ago. He would chatter away, but only his mum, my sister, could understand him. We pointed out it was difficult to make out what he was saying, but she couldn’t see a problem. When he started school, they suggested he see a speech therapist, which he did, and the speech issue was resolved.

Not sure how things are nowadays, but feel sure it will be resolved in the fullness of time.

You already brought it up with your daughter and she told you where she stands.

I wouldn't repeat it again.
When she goes to school, she will be evaluated and measures will be taken.

My daughter is the same age and the amount of progress in 6 months is incredible - like night and day
She is bilingual too so it obviously plays a huge role too.

Measures will be taken if needed

My DD at age 3 health visitor check was referred to speech therapy. She needed me as a translator, even her Dad had difficulty understanding her.
She had weekly speech therapy which lasted until the end of her first full term at school.
It may be a good idea for your daughter to speak to her health visitor, and get a referral to speech therapy sooner rather than later as the service is stretched at present.

My two younger grandsons are having speech therapy at present, and there are only about 6 of them to cover all of Northumberland. The boys have complex speech problems which should have been addressed much earlier, but they were living in Argyll and Bute where the service is even more stretched.

She never stops talking.
She has a wide vocabulary and is perhaps trying to say too much too fast and it comes out garbled.
As she interacts more with other children she may slow up and articulate better.

Has she been checked to see if she is tongue tied? If so, it's a simple procedure to correct it.

For instance since birth she has had a soft bunny called Flopsy. No matter how many times we tell her, she has always said Wopwee.

Sorry, but Flopsy is your name for bunny. Her name for bunny is Wopwee and Wopwee she will probably be for ever.

I remember DGD at about that age telling everyone where she was born and getting the consonants mixed up but she was absolutely insistent she was right.
She would probably laugh if we reminded her of that now, just a few years later.

It could right itself in time, as with some children they can be just late developers. Try and correct the child each time without any baby-talk. Maybe hearing " conversations " with her brother is causing her to be like this ?

My GGD had an episode of talking as though she'd been inhaling helium, but that stopped when my D told her to stop after each sentence---she was 8 at the time. She was squeaking and talking in whispers.

Are you absolutely sure she doesn't have a hearing problem?

My grandson got very frustrated as a toddler when people didn't understand him - but he couldn't hear properly to distinguish the sounds he heard so couldn't make himself understood - hence the frustration... he too could hear noises in other rooms.

He had 'glue ear' ( Otitis Media with Effusion) and was treated for it. His pronunciation improved rapidly, and no more frustration at not being understood.

... I assume tho', as it's a very common problem, she's been checked for this?

I think all the "milestones" from our own children growing up are more or less a thing of the past now.
Things are much more flexible.
I know a little girl who had what seemed like real issues when she started school.
Nobody could understand a word!
She did soon catch up though, because she mixed with children she wanted to communicate with.

You’ve done all you can. You talked to your daughter, now you must support how she and the child’s father choose to handle this going forward.

He had 'glue ear' ( Otitis Media with Effusion) and was treated for it. His pronunciation improved rapidly, and no more frustration at not being understood
I remember one of DD's friends had this, not diagnosed until she was about 7. She was a very bright child, sat herself at the front of the class and then the parents and teacher realised she had taught herself to lip read.

Is she talking in baby language to her little brother? Or is she sub-consciously reverting to baby language because he gets a lot of attention.

You can only support her parents' decisions and school may well pick up on this if she is still doing it then.

If you call Flopsy "Wopwee" as she does she may turn round one day and tell you very firmly that bunny's name is Flopsy!

One of my sons had continual ear infections and ever present glue ear, and quite delayed speech as a consequence. He had two sets of grommets in early childhood. He didn't say much till well over 3. I find it hard to reconcile that with the hard to get a word in edgeways verbose person he has become.

I'm a speech therapist by training. I wonder if this wee girl might have a high frequency hearing loss? This would mean that she wouldn't pick up on sounds like /s/ /sh/ /ch/ etc so wouldn't be articulating them. It's good that her language comprehension and expression is fine it's just her articulation that's currently a problem.

When DD3 was about 3 1/2 going on 4 I was devastated when her Nursery teacher told me that unlike the other children, they were not encouraging her to recite a nursery rhyme/tell a fairy tale “in case the other children laughed at her speech impediment “
What speech impediment?
She couldn’t really pronounce her “s” sounds but I could understand her as could her sisters. Admittedly as the baby of the family we had probably not discouraged “baby talk” ( well it is so sweet isn’t it?)
Getting no joy from the Health Visitor and the possibility of a wait of over a year for speech therapy on the NHS, we bit the bullet and sent her to a highly recommended private therapist. It was £30 an hour I remember (and that was 36 years ago) but it only took two sessions to sort out the “s”’s and any other problems.
About a month after, her sisters came to me and said “Mummy, you know you took. to a speaking lady to teach her to speak, well, could you take her back and get her to stop ?”
I would say as long as her hearing is fine, I would not give it mother thought. Read to her, encourage her to talk and be patient. She will be fine.

“Another thought” not mother !

Blondisc I don’t really agree with your diagnosis that it’s because she hasn’t been in nursery There were no such thing as nurseries when we were growing up I never saw a nursery and was brought up by mainly one person my Nan and no brothers or sisters but I still spoke well
Maybe she doesn’t like the name flopsy and wants a wopwee
Or maybe there are certain letters she can’t manage yet
I would, like someone else said, check for tongue tied it maybe that she just can’t get her mouth around certain letters
Although her general hearing seems good have a check anyway as there may be certain sounds she’s not picking up
Try not to worry my very articulate friend became mute for a time when she was small it was her way of ‘having a break’

After 5 children and 11 grandchildren, *glamma', I would say - don't worry!!

If there is a problem, school will suggest something and you can do your bit to help then.

Wolfie, more or less the same age, is difficult to understand sometimes but improves daily.

'f' and 's' are high frequency sounds hence 'wopwee' is a reasonable approximation.

I didn't learn to speak properly till I went to school. I didn't really meet other children before that and my parents could understand me so they weren't bothered. I can't remember my speech being a problem at school, but I found the whole experience of school quite traumatic so it was probably the least of my worries!

GS2 had some speech therapy when he first started school. Now he is 9 he is very voluble and pretty much organises his whole class.

BlueBelle - that wasn't actually what I was saying, and I was speaking in a wider context, not just about this particular child. There are have been many concerns raised about how the pandemic may have long-lasting effects on the youngest children - including things like speech development. Only time will tell.

DGD had speech therapy from 4 following 2 comprehensive hearing tests which were fine. She was checked for a soft palate problem as very nasal speech but again that was fine. The speech therapist gave exercises to do at home and she is much better now at nearly 5 - been discharged now. She is and was very very articulate - never stops talking. Nursery had some problems understanding but not now.
DGS2 is 3 ¾ and also speaks a lot. A few words from baby talk are now changing to the correct pronunciation eg. for bath he said bash and he has changed that himself to bath in the last 2 weeks. 3.5 is probably still quite young - as long as you say the correct words back to her. Aveline these sounds are similar to what DGD had to practise. The speech therapist did games with her and she enjoyed the sessions.

My granddaughter can be like this. It sounds like she’s very bright, and her brain is going too fast for her mouth. This will most likely self correct, but if not, a speech therapist may help.

My son needed a speech therapist at around four years old. He used to stumble over the beginning of words. He started talking at 13 months, and at the time, the therapist said this was common in children who talked early. One of his stumblings was quite awkward. He had trouble starting words beginning with ‘S’, and substituted with ‘F’. Very embarrassing, as at the time, The Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, who he loved, were calling everyone’ suckers’.

Thankfully, it was short lived. Don’t worry about your granddaughter, she’ll be fine. Perhaps don’t try to pre empt what she is going to say. I know it’s hard waiting?

I moved on from being a speech and language therapist for children and moved on to adults but have happy memories of my work with children. We had all sorts of games and activities that we did without children really realising how I was trying to change their speech. It was great to see their improvement. We had a lot of fun. It was mostly small boys who had difficulties rather than girls.
This thread has revived some happy memories.