Speech Delay is Contagious

Taylor has possibly the cutest child-saying ever. EVER. Her Taylorism is "I can hear my heart beeping." She says beeping instead of beating. She says this often, and despite the fact that I tell her the correct way to say it every time, she continues saying it her way. Which is seriously adorble, so I don't mind. What I do mind however is that Maddie is starting to copy the way Taylor says things (duh, since they are together all day long). The problem is that Taylor has some speech problems, and though Maddie does not (I have gotten her to say things correctly when prodded), she imitates what she hears. For example, Taylor can't make the "T" sound, it comes out as a hard "C". Toilet is Coilet, toy is coy, and so on. She also makes the "D" sound as a hard "G". Unfortunately we can't do anything about the her need for speech therapy right now because the girls are now uninsured, and Corey makes too much money to qualify for help from the state. I really hate the fact that we have to wait to get her help until she starts school and can get speech therapy through the school district. I am working with Taylor as much as I can, I correct her every time she makes a sound incorrectly, but she just can't get her tongue to do what it is supposed to. I even went to a mommy speech therapy blog and tried to have Taylor do the exercises, but I'm not trained so she still struggles. I did read on this site that she is making the typical substitutions that other kids with a speech delay make. I feel like an awful mother making her start school already needing extra help. I fear that the teachers and other students will have trouble understanding her, and that will lead to frustration on all sides. We can understand pretty much every thing she says, but that's because we are with her all the time of course! It is becoming a bigger problem now that Maddie is making the same substitutions as Taylor despite the fact that she can make the correct sounds.

This is funny, though. Taylor says "gotfor" instead of "forgot". Maddie does the same, only because she hears her big sister. I constantly tell them the correct way to say it, but they persist with "gotfor".