![]() Sound Development and Intelligibility Children make predictable sound errors as they learn to talk. “Baba” for bottle, “Nana” for banana, wabbit for “rabbit.” In some ways it isn’t even fair to call them errors, because they are actually a normal part of speech development called phonological processes. There are a variety of these phonological processes in play as children say their first words and some of these processes may stick around for a few years and still be considered typical. Does that mean it is normal for people to not understand my 2-year-old? That depends. By age two you should understand at least 50% of what your child says. By age three strangers should understand about 75% of what your child says and by age four strangers should understand 100% of what your child says. Your child should start cooing by 3 months, laughter and playful noises can be heard by 5 months, speech-like babbling occurs around 6 months, and by a year parents typically hear longer strings of sounds babbled. Typically the sounds m,n,h,w,p,b,t,k,g, and f are developed by age 3 and y and v come in by age 4. Children may still have errors with s, sh, ch, j, ng, th, z , l, and r. Who has speech disorders? Your child may have difficulty with articulation if he or she is unable to produce certain sounds when developmentally appropriate or your child may have delayed phonological development if phonological processes persist beyond the age they typically disappear or if the processes being used are different than what is expected. Some children have difficulty with motor coordination and may have apraxia. Apraxia of speech is not common, but can cause significant difficulty with speech intelligibility. Some children are prone to speech problems if they have a developmental disorder, autism, a genetic syndrome like Down syndrome, hearing loss from ear infections or other causes, brain damage including cerebral palsy or a head injury and some children have speech sound disorders with no other areas of concern. In other words, anybody can have a speech sound disorder. My child’s school says he/she doesn’t qualify for services Unfortunately, schools often use developmental norms as the one and only determination for services with children who only have speech sound errors. Research shows that developmental norms are not intended to be used to determine an age cutoff, because there is variability across studies in age of acquisition for each sound. Best practice entails the use of more than a single measure and developmental norms have not been found to have diagnostic accuracy. Please be aware that just because your child’s school determines your child does not require speech-therapy does not mean that you should wait to receive services. Contact a certified speech-language pathologist at Empowered if you have any questions about your child’s speech development. Will speech sounds errors get better on their own? Some children do grow out of speech sound errors without any help, but speech sound disorders that are left untreated can persist into adulthood. If you or others have difficulty understanding your child, even if your child is only making errors on one or two sounds, the certified speech-language pathologists at Empowered are here to help. Kate Eichstadt M.S. CCC-SLP
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AuthorKate Eichstadt M.S. CCC-SLP Archives
March 2023
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