Speech Sound Development

The month of May is Better Speech and Hearing Month. This is a time to increase awareness in our community regarding communication disorders. Over the next few weeks, the blog will feature information on the milestones of speech development.

Speech Sound Development

Your child will develop individual speech sounds gradually. Its starts with vocalizations around 2 or 3 months and grows to babbling and cooing and stringing sounds and syllables together between 8-24 months. As your child grows, they will learn sounds and begin to form words around a year old. Articulation errors are to be expected as your child is learning and developing. If you are wondering whether your child’s language development is progressing appropriately, these guideline provided in the Assessment and Treatment of Articulation and Phonological Disorders in Children provides the following guidelines on the appropriate age to expect children to produce sounds correctly:

By age 3: h, w, m, n, b, p, f

By age 4: d, t, y (as in yes), k, g, ng

By age 6: l, j (as in jump), ch (as in chair), sh (as in shoe), v

Errors with r, s, z, th (as in thing), th (as in father), and zh (as in garage) may persist

By age 8-9: Child matches the adult standard for the production of all consonant sounds