How do I know if my child has a speech sound delay or disorder?
As speech pathologists we work with children who experience speech sound delays
or disorders to support them to achieve correct production of their speech sounds so
that they can clearly communicate their message and be understood by others.
However, sometimes it may be difficult to determine when your child’s
speech errors are age appropriate or when they may benefit from further support
from a speech pathologist.
The following guidelines indicate at which age 90% of children are able to appropriately
articulate each speech sound (Norms based on McLeod & Crowe, 2018):
2 to 3 years
p, b, m, d, n, h, t, k, g, w, ng, f, y
4 years
l, j, ch, s, v, sh, z
5 years
r, zh
5 to 6 years
th
A further example to explain this would be, if your child is 3 years old and having
difficulty producing /r/ speech sound this would be considered as age appropriate
because that sound is not expected to develop until they are 5 years old. However, if
your child is 5 years old and experiences difficulties producing /k/ and /g/ speech
sounds, they may benefit from an assessment by a speech pathologist as these
sounds were expected to be produced correctly by 2 to 3 years old.
How can I help my child with their speech sounds?
Parents and caregivers are in a great position to model speech sounds for their child and can encourage additional opportunities for their child to practice their speech sound
production. This can be gentle practice at home while their speech sounds are still
developing.
The following strategies are recommended to support speech development at home:
Modelling is a technique used to provide additional opportunities for a child to
hear language with correct speech in an indirect and conversational way.
Modelling involves you as the parent/caregiver giving comments and
providing examples of what your child could say that using the target sound in
your conversational speech so that they can become familiar with how it is
produced.
Recasting involves reproducing what your child has said so your child has the
opportunity to hear their utterances said back to them but with the correct
speech sounds. When recasting we are not aiming for the child to repeat what
we say, but to hear a correct production of what they have just attempted to
say so they can add it to their storage system supporting them the next time
they say something similar. It is a less direct way to model language
structures without interrupting the flow of conversation (e.g. child says “I want
the wabbit" then the parent/caregiver says "I want the rabbit" then the
conversation continues.
Encourage your child to look at your mouth when repeating new or tricky
words. This allows them to gain more information about how to make the
sound with their lips/tongue/teeth.
Refrain from requesting your child to repeat everything they say as this can
sometimes result in withdrawal and retreat. Whilst new sounds are emerging
and being practiced it can be helpful to leave the imitation and prompts to
copy to speech practice time (10-15 minutes a day).
There are many ways to naturally and incidentally teach new sounds and words that you can try in a range of daily activities:
Comment and bring their attention to sounds at the start of words when
reading books (e.g. “The cat sat on the mat, I can hear a /k/ at the start of
cat, /k/ for cat!”)
Praise your child when you hear them say a tricky sound correctly (e.g.
“wow, I heard a great /m/ sound when you said mum! Well done!”)
Play with sounds (e.g. pop balloons and say “pop” “pop” and then try /p/
together, drive cars and say “vroom”, play with animal sounds “moo” “baa”
“ney” “quack”)
Singing songs can be another great way to incidentally teach new words
and sounds. After your child is familiar with a new song, pause at the end
of the line to give your child a chance to complete the line (e.g. Old
McDonald had a..., Incy Wincy...).
Some children that have difficulty with speech sound production may not improve their speech sound production with general at home strategies and may require more individualised support from a speech pathologist tailored to their specific challenges and set to be achievable to help with success and motivation. Our team of speech pathologists at SPOT provide individualised support for your child by completing speech assessment to look at all speech sounds and determine what the nature of their speech difficulties are and then formulate targeted therapy goals alongside caregivers.
Speech pathologists may incorporate specific verbal and visual prompting cues, and feedback tailored to the speech sounds that are tricky to support them to achieve the correct production.
Speech pathologists can also provide further parent training to support parents to learn the feedback and cues and carry on with home practice to work towards their goals. This can also include the speech pathologist creating speech home resource packs containing games and activities to provide further opportunities for speech practice at home.
If you do have concerns about your child’s speech sound development a speech pathologists can offer speech assessments to review how you child’s speech is developing for their age and offer further individualised supports and speech therapy intervention.
Feel free to reach out to our friendly team at SPOT by calling 7228 6825 or emailing
admin@spotpaediatrics.com.au for more information.
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