Sudden speech change

CakeBatter

Two or three days ago, DD1 started mispronouncing words by adding L's where they don't belong (qluiet instead of quiet) or replacing R's with L's (Clistmas or Ludolph). She knows the right words and how to pronounce them, and we play it off like we don't understand her and she will then pronounce it correctly. We told her it's not funny or cute, and she needs to stop. She still does it, sometimes it's exaggerated and sometimes it seems like it's almost done unconsciously. Anybody have advice or deal with something similar?

ghostgirl

We went through something similar with DS a few months ago.  Everything he said suddenly had a southern accent!  It was really weird, especially because we do not know anyone, I mean anyone, with a southern drawl.  At first it really bothered me but once we started ignoring it, but responding with the correct intonation, he stopped.  He did it for a few weeks.  It scared me though because I started googling, and we all know what happens when you do that.  Suddenly you fear your child has a brain tumor!

annibes

L's and r's are both commonly replaced by w's. "I wode on the twain" "I wike ice cweam." I've seen kids (often in speech therapy, but I'm sure it could happen otherwise) over generalize- so when a kid finally learns to say "L" (especially when we're drilling it into them "no, Like, not Wike"), they replace every little w with an L. I'm pretty sure it's developmental, but I would check with the pedi or her teacher if it doesn't resolve. Try not to make a huge deal out of it, as irritating as it might be.

CakeBatter

annibes:

L's and r's are both commonly replaced by w's. "I wode on the twain" "I wike ice cweam." I've seen kids (often in speech therapy, but I'm sure it could happen otherwise) over generalize- so when a kid finally learns to say "L" (especially when we're drilling it into them "no, Like, not Wike"), they replace every little w with an L. I'm pretty sure it's developmental, but I would check with the pedi or her teacher if it doesn't resolve. Try not to make a huge deal out of it, as irritating as it might be.

That makes sense. It didn't even register that she was pronouncing L's when she had been pronouncing them as W's! That might very well be it.