Y and L confusion

JoJoGee

L has a hard time distinguishing her Y's from her L's.  When she says 'Look' it comes out as "yook."  But, when she says 'Yellow' it comes out as "Lellow."  It is the darnedest thing.  Anyone know if this is typical for this age group?  Is it a result of her delayed speech?  I'm just more curious than anything.

kar5162

That sounds pretty typical and not something to worry about at this point. My kid with CP has always spoken really well, but my 3 year old who is typically developing has just learned Y/L, but still can't say most beginning "s" sounds and "r" (comes out as w still) as well as having numerous other off sounds. I think the only reason she finally caught onto the Y sound is her favorite color is yellow and she was tired of correcting people a million times. le-wo it turns out is pretty hard for most people to translate to yellow .

ridesbuttons

DS1 said "lellow" for the longest time.  I didn't want to correct him it was so cute.  He also had the funniest way of saying squirrel (I don't remember now how he would say it) but it was so cute and funny I used to trick him into saying that word just so I could hear it.

Repetitive sounds are easier for kids to make.  So "lellow' is easier than "yellow" which engages different muscles in the mouth and tongue.  "Yook" is similarly easy  compared to "look" which requires the child to use his tongue in very different ways to make the word sound right.

Sounds typical to me.