Speech Sound Development by Age: When Children Learn Each Sound

Articulation is the way we say the sounds in a word. Children often have articulation errors as their learning to talk, and this is expected! As they continue to develop, children may outgrow their speech sound errors.

There are also different types of errors, which can be categorized as articulation versus phonological errors.

Articulation errors occur when a child has difficulty producing a speech sound, due to the way they move their articulators (e.g., tongue, lips, jaw, etc. ). The following are articulation errors:

• Lisps

• R sound distortions

Phonological errors are pattern-based sound errors, where the child consistently omits a sound or substitutes one sound for another. The following are examples of phonological errors:

• Substituting W for L (e.g., light- white, wine- line)

• Omitting a sound in clusters (e.g., spoon- poon, snake- sake)

Since sound errors can resolve on their own as a child's speech develops, families might not know when the right time is to get support from a speech therapist. We often hear families share:

• I understand my child, but others don't seem to be able to

• My pediatrician said it might be helpful to reach out to a speech therapist

• My child is starting to read, but keeps sounding out words incorrectly

• My child gets frustrated when others don't understand them

• My child has some sound errors, but they're cute! Does he really need support to help him?

Many factors go into determining if a child could benefit from speech therapy and at what stage in their development it would be most impactful. Some of those factors include:

• Language: How many words are they saying? If your child is young and developing first words and phrases, they may need support to say more of these before working on articulation. Talking to a speech therapist can help determine if your child needs support with language or articulation, or both!

• Age: Many speech sound errors are developmentally appropriate. Over time, a child may grow out of the sound errors without speech therapy. We'll share more below about when we expect sound errors to be eliminated.

• Hearing/ENT-related issues: It's important to confirm that a child can adequately hear the sounds in words because we learn language and sounds by imitating others. We also want to rule out structural limitations that may make it more challenging or prevent a child from producing some sounds.

Articulation Errors- The ages we expect children to correctly produce a sound:

• 5 years old

  • Frontal Lisp (i.e., when the tongue protrudes between the teeth for sounds such as /s/ and /z/)

  • Vocalic R errors (i.e., difficulty saying the R sound in words such as hear, tire, chore)

Phonological Errors- The ages child typically grow out of these pattern-based errors:

• 3 years old

  • Assimilation (e.g., doddie for doggie)

  • Final Consonant Deletion (e.g., bu for bus or ca for cat)

• 3.5 years old

  • Stopping of Fricatives (e.g., toe for sew or ban for van)

  • Weak Syllable Deletion (e.g., nana for banana)

  • Fronting (e.g., tar for car or sip for ship)

• 4 years old

  • Cluster Reduction (e.g., nake for snake or cown for clown)

• 4.5 years old

  • Deaffrication (e.g., share for chair or zham for jam)

  • Stopping of Affricates (e.g., teese for cheese or dump for jump)

• 5 years old

  • Gliding (e.g., wing for ring or whip for lip)

• 6 years old

  • Fricative simplification (e.g., fumb for thumb)

Sound errors that are not expected at any age and will most likely need support from a speech therapist:

• Lateral lisp (e.g., air flows out the sides of the mouth for sounds such as /sh/ and /ch/)

• Backing (e.g., gime for dime or kip for tip)

• Initial consonant deletion (e.g., up for cup)

We recommend reaching out for support for speech sound errors if:

• You or others are having difficulty understanding your child

• Your child is frustrated by not being understood by others

• Your child's sound errors are not age expected, based on the lists above

• Your child is starting to read, and their articulation is impacting decoding

Children often make speech sound errors as they learn to talk, and many of these errors resolve naturally as speech develops. However, some errors may indicate a need for support from a speech therapist. Speech sound errors generally fall into two categories: articulation errors, which involve difficulty physically producing a sound, and phonological errors, which involve predictable patterns of sound substitutions or omissions. Because different sound errors are expected to resolve at different ages, it can be hard for families to know when to seek help. Factors such as a child’s age, language development, hearing, and frustration with communication all play a role in determining whether therapy may be beneficial. If a child’s speech is difficult for others to understand, their errors are not age-appropriate, or their speech is affecting early reading skills, consulting a speech therapist can help determine the best next steps for supporting clear and confident communication.

Reach out to us to chat more about speech therapy for your child!