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Should I be concerned about my child's speech errors?
Some speech sounds develop later than others. It is typical for children to mispronounce "ch" for example until they are around 5 or 6 years old. If your child is mispronouncing a sound past the age by which it is typically mastered, he or she may need speech therapy to address these errors.
Sounds that typically develop by...
- 3 years old: p, m, w, h, b, d, n, and y
- 4 years old: k, g, t, and f
- 5 years old: ng and j
- 6 years old: sh, l, zh, v, and ch
- 7 years old: s, z, th (voiced, as in "this") and r blends and l blends
- 8 years old: r and th (unvoiced, as in "thank")
Stuttering
Stuttering is a speech disorder characterized by interruptions to the smooth flow of speech. These interruptions can come in the form of repetitions, prolongations, blocks, and interjections. Everyone experiences speech that isn’t perfectly smooth sometimes, but for stutterers, these disfluencies occur often and can be very disruptive.
Speech Sound Disorders
It is common for children to make errors in how they say words. Many times, these errors are normal. For instance, if a 4-year-old says “wight” instead of “light,” this is no cause for concern. When these speech errors persist beyond the age at which the sounds are usually mastered, or when the errors make it very difficulty to understand what the child is saying, speech therapy may be needed to correct the child’s pronunciation of the sounds they are having trouble with.
Expressive/Receptive Language Disorders
Receptive language refers to understanding questions, following directions, and other skills that involve interpreting what others say. Expressive language refers to learning new words, forming sentences, using correct grammar, and other aspects of communicating one’s own ideas to others. A child may have difficulty developing skills in one or both of these categories.