DEVELOPMENT OF SPEECH SOUNDS IN CHILDREN UNDER 5
Children vary a great deal in the acquisition of speech sounds. This is a complex process
which starts during the first year and is unlikely to be complete until the child reaches
school age.
The process normally involves the following stages, but the ages are APPROXIMATE –
remember that each child varies as to when they develop:BABBLING
The infant uses a wide variety of sounds (including non-speech sounds, e.g. screeching)
repetitively and experimentally. The stage develops from 5-6 months and extends to
beyond the use of first words. At around 9 months the babble becomes ‘tuneful’ and
resembles the intonation patterns of adults.
FIRST WORDS
These begin to appear at around the end of the first year. The range of sounds may now
reduce as their use becomes more specific. The early words may not become ‘distinct’
(clear) for some time.
BY TWO YEARS
The child will probably use:
Lip sounds:
p b m w
Tongue-tip sounds: t d n
It is common for consonants at the ends of words to be missed off at this stage, and
because of the limited range of speech sounds, many words may appear similar, e.g. “da”
may be used for ‘that’, ‘daddy’, ‘cat’, ‘car’, etc.
BY THREE YEARS
The child will probably have added:
Back sounds:
First fricatives:
Also:
k g ng
f s
h
As the range of sounds increases, the speech patterns become more recognisable and
the child becomes generally more intelligible, especially in context.
Consonant clusters, such as ‘sp’, ‘pl’, and ‘fl’ may be simplified, so that “spoon” becomes,
‘poon’, “plane” becomes ‘pane’, etc.
October 2012
SSD Intro 2
BY FOUR YEARS
The child will have introduced:
Additional sounds: l y
Later sounds:
sh ch j v z
Consonant clusters are developing:
bl- st-
Similar sounds (e.g. ‘w’, ‘r’, ‘l’, ‘y’) may be used interchangeably, e.g. “wing” for ‘ring’, “les”
for ‘yes’. The child should now be intelligible when speaking in and out of context, and to
people outside of the family. Simple mistakes may still be made.
BY FIVE YEARS
The child should have an almost complete range of speech sounds. Complex consonant
clusters, such as ‘str’ in “string” and ‘spl’ in “splash” should be present.
Some immaturities may persist, e.g. with ‘r’ and ‘th’. These may also be a result of regional
accents.
October 2012
SSD Intro 2