I often have parents or caregivers of young children call me with concerns regarding their child’s speech. I see children who have received early intervention for a language delay and as the child is beginning to communicate more, they are increasingly more difficult to understand. Extended family members, teachers or friends will oftentimes have difficulty understanding the child. Because the parents are accustomed to hearing their child, they will say, “I typically understand what my child is saying, but their grandma does not”. Or they will say, “I understand if I know the context, but if I don’t, I have no clue what she is saying!”.
Speech sounds are acquired in a developmental progression according to the child’s age. When a child begins speaking, they will oftentimes substitute or delete those sounds which they have not yet acquired. As they master these sounds, the sound substitutions and deletions decrease. A typical 3-year-old should have early sounds including: /p/, /b/, /d/, /m/, /n/, /h/, /w/, /t/, /k/, /g/, /ŋ/ (ng), /j/ (“y” as in “yellow”) and /f/. For these early sounds, a 3-year-old should be able to produce them in the beginning of the word, the middle of the word and the end of the word (e.g. for /k/: “cat”, “monkey” and “rock”). A child with an articulation disorder oftentimes will substitute the sound with another sound (e.g. will produce /t/ for /k/ – “tat” for “cat”) or delete the sound altogether (“mun-ee” for “monkey”).
If there are concerns with a speech delay, an articulation evaluation is recommended. During an articulation evaluation, the child is typically shown pictures and the speech pathologist listens to how the child is producing their sounds-in-words and also if there is a breakdown in intelligibility in connected speech. If the child’s speech is considered below age-level, speech therapy may be recommended. Below are some links to charts which provide some information about developmental acquisition of sounds according to age. If you are concerned with your child’s speech, feel free to reach out!
Reeni Krafft, M.A., CCC-SLP is a nationally certified Speech-Language Pathologist and the owner of Without Limits Speech & Language Therapy, Inc., a private practice located in Columbia, MD.
Crowe, K. & McLeod, S. (2020). Children’s English consonant acquisition in the United States: A review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_AJSLP-19-00168
McLeod, S. & Crowe, K. (2018). Children’s consonant acquisition in 27 languages: A cross-linguistic review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27(4),1546-1571. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0100
McLeod, S., Crowe, K., & Shahaeian, A. (2015). Intelligibility in Context Scale: Normative and validation data for English-speaking preschoolers. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 46(3), 266-276. https://doi.org/10.1044/2015_LSHSS-14-0120
