mtj1282 wrote:

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I dont know if there are any parents in this thread, but is their speech where it should be for the age of 4? For some reason I thought four year olds talked better than they do. They still talk in baby talk every now and then. In the sesame episode, jon mimicked alexis and said "hims my friend". Shouldnt a four year old know to say "he is my friend"? I dont know. im just curious. lol.

Not a parent, but I taught preschool w/ special needs inclusion for several years. The tups' speech is absolutely developmentally normal. Their major issues are using the wrong pronouns (him instead of his) and misprouncing some letters (l is pronouunced like y) and some blends (Aaden's "gubs" for "gloves".) All of these are developmental and completely normal for 3, 4 and even some 5 year olds. The 'tups just turned 4 on May 10.

The one issue they do have is that there are 6 of them, they are always together, and they are sharing each other's language habits. So while a singleton child of their age might only show one of these habits, the tups are just passing them all back and forth to one another.

I do wholeheartedly agree that going to preschool would be very beneficial. Young children who are in preschool or even a structured day care program often have better language skills than those who do not go. (Not always, just a generalization.)

Kate has said on the show that the tups will be attending the preschool program at their church this coming fall. So we shall see!

I actually think they talk very cute - especially little Alexis. On her special day at the reptile museum: "Him yikes me, him yookin' at me!" Awww.

A child with their speech habits would not really be referred for speech therapy until age 5 or 6. All they really need at this point is for someone to take the time and mirror the correct word usage and pronounciation back to them. For example, when Alexis said "Him yikes me, him yookin' at me!" Jon or Kate could have said back to her, "He lllikes you Alexis, he's lllooking at you." If this was done on a consistent basis, they'd pick it right up once developmentally able to. (L is one of the last letter sounds a child develops.)