Typical Speech Development
We need to understand typical
speech development in order to
follow Auditory-Verbal practices.
Normal speech development
encompasses:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Crying
Cooing
Laughing
Vocal Play/Babbling
Echolalia
Jargoning
Words
Articulation
From birth -3 months you can expect
to see a typically developing child:




Coo and goo when content
Use differentiated cries
Vocalize single syllables
Blow bubbles
From 4-6 months you can expect to
see a typically developing child:









Use vocal play when playing
Use speech like babbling to self and others
Babble sounds with p, b, and m (putting lips
together)
Babble some double syllables
Begin to use nasal sounds
Make urgent noises to prompt adults to action
Vocalize pleasure and displeasure
Stop vocalizing when an adult enters the room
Coo, cluck, gurgle, and laugh
From 7-9 months you can expect to
see a typically developing child:





Babble with sounds changing to include
more consonants – n,t,d,b,p,z
Babble with sounds like singing
Reduplicate babbling –babababa
Imitate intonation and speech sounds
Use vocal play with intonation patterns
From 10 - 12 months you can expect
to see a typically developing child:





Vocalize during play
Vocalize into a mirror
Use a vowel – consonant ratio of 2:1
Imitate intonation and phrase patterns
Use first words
From 1 – 1 ½ years you can expect
to see a typically developing child:







Use Jargon
Use echolalia
Omit final consonants and some initial
consonants
Be unintelligible except for a few words
Use words produced with CV emerge
Accurately imitate some words
Use twenty-one phonemes
From 1 ½ - 2 years you can expect
to see a typically developing child:




Use more words than jargon (usually
gone by 2 years)
Ask questions by raising intonation at
the end of a phrase
Improve intelligibility – 65% intelligible
by 2 years
Develop words produced with CVC
From 2 – 2 ½ years you can expect
to see a typically developing child:








Use twenty-five different phonemes
Use beginning consonants
Be 70% intelligible to listeners
Omit final consonants
Reduce consonant blends
Substitute one consonant for another
Emergent use of final consonants in words
Use lower and more stable pitch
From 2 ½ to 3 years you can expect
to see a typically developing child:



Use some substitutions and distortion
of consonants
Continue to improve intelligible speech
to 80 %
Masters consonants: p,m,n,w,h
From 3 – 3 ½ years you can expect
to see a typically developing child:




Use final consonants most of the time
No longer producing the phonological
processes: consonant assimilation, doubling,
final consonant deletion, prevocalic voicing,
reduplication, unstressed syllable deletion,
velar fronting
Mastery of 2/3 of adult speech sounds
Use speech which is 75% intelligible
From 3 ½ to 4 years you can expect
to see a typically developing child:




Be intelligible with connected speech
Continue to refine articulation skills
Master consonants: b,d,k,g,f,v
Continue the phononlogical processes
after 3 years of cluster reduction, final
devoicing, gliding, and stopping
From 4 – 4 ½ years you can expect
to see a typically developing child:


Use omissions and substitutions
Be intelligible in connected speech
From 4 ½ to 5 years you can expect
to see a typically developing child:


Use most consonants sounds
consistently and accurately, thought
not mastered in all contexts
Have more errors in difficult blends
From 5 to 6 years you can expect to
see a typically developing child:

Master consonants: ng, r, l
By knowing and understanding typical
speech development, we are able to
target specific developmentally
appropriate speech sounds and to
provide the listening opportunities to
develop those sounds.