When Should Children be Able to Say Certain Sounds? (And How Can We Help?)

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Speech and Language Kids Podcast 26 min 1 speaker 8 chapters transcribed 1 hour ago

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What ages should children be saying specific speech sounds like /b/ and /m/?

Carrie Clark 0:00

One of the top questions I get is about whether or not a child should be s saying certain sounds. Let me tell you, there is a wide range of normal when it comes to speech sound acquisition, but in general we know that certain sounds like b and m come in early, while other sounds like err and l come in later. And knowing those milestones can help us decide which children need speech speech therapy and which one can wait it out a little bit and see how they do. I'm Speech Language Pathologist Carrie Clark, and in today's episode of the Speech and Language Kids podcast, I'll be telling you what ages certain sounds should come in by, and I'll be giving you a therapy roadmap for how to help if they're not.

Carrie Clark 0:44

So let's get started. All right, if you are listening to this as a podcast recording, then you can find all of the notes and all the charts that I'm gonna give you here at speechand LanguageKids.com slash sounds dash podcast. That will take you to the show notes for this episode. But I'm also live here inside the hub. So welcome to all of you who are hanging out with me live today. Um we are About a month into 2025, as I'm recording this, and I am doubling down on our therapy plans. So for get one-off activities, I am talking about full treatment guides that walk you through therapy from start to finish. You don't need one more random teachers pay teachers activity to clutter your office. You just don't.

Carrie Clark 1:31

What you need is a comprehensive therapy plan that. That actually leads to results. So inside the Speech and Language Kids Hub, I have been working very hard on this. We already have therapy plans for over 100 different skills, and I've been adding new ones. I just popped one in there today for gliding, gliding of liquids. So that one just popped in today, along with a couple new handouts. and a case history tool. So if you haven't seen those yet, grab those. Um, but we already have a bunch of those. I'm also going to be looking at seeing how I can create What I'm calling these therapy roadmaps. So this is going to be taking you from qualification to dismissal, an entire plan that you could map out. Okay, here are the skills we're gonna work on and the order we're gonna work on them.

Carrie Clark 2:19

Here's how we're gonna get this child from where they are today to not needing us anymore, to being able to do all of this on their own, right? And so I'm really excited about that. Um, so today we're gonna Talk about speech sounds and I'm gonna give you a roadmap for that. Now I don't have a printable one yet, but we're working on that. Um, but we're gonna talk through the roadmap of what therapy would look like for a child who is struggling with speech sounds. Okay, so if you want to um hop into the hub and access any of the therapy plans we're gonna talk about today. You can find those at speechandlanguage kids dot com. Uh and the hub is hub.speechandlanguage kids.com. Okay, so to help make this idea of a roadmap clear, I want to use the story of Jojo.

Carrie Clark 3:10

And no, Jojo is not a real client, but Jojo is based on many of my past clients and kiddos that I have seen. A lot. So let's say you're working with Jojo and you work with Jojo for a long time. Now I know many of you may only be in one setting, so maybe you only see them for a few years before they move on. But let's imagine that Jojo has one speech therapist all the way through just for the sake of making this example, okay. Jojo has childhood apraxia of speech. Jojo starts off in therapy, not really able to say much of anything. She's trying, but poor little Jojo just is not understood. So here's what a therapy roadmap might look like for Jojo. So for JoJo, we start with a core word approach.

How wide is the normal range for speech‑sound acquisition and why does it vary?

Carrie Clark 4:00

For those of you who don't know, that's when you say, okay, we're gonna work on these 10 words. They are very simple words that this child can use over and over in everyday life in a lot of different situations. And they're also simple to say. And so we're gonna work on being able to put together those words. And use them functionally. So that's core word. Okay, so that's where JoJo starts.

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Chapters

8 chapters

1 What ages should children be saying specific speech sounds like /b/ and /m/? 0:00–4:00 2 How wide is the normal range for speech‑sound acquisition and why does it vary? 4:00–7:08 3 When should parents be concerned that a child’s speech sounds are delayed? 7:08–10:06 4 What are the typical speech‑sound milestones for three‑year‑olds? 10:06–13:37 5 Which speech sounds are expected by age four and how are they identified? 13:37–16:52 6 What additional sounds should five‑year‑olds master and why are they important? 16:52–19:55 7 How does the “Therapy Roadmap” help decide which intervention path to choose? 19:55–22:52 8 What are the four therapy pathways (motor speech, phonology, articulation, mumblers) and when should each be used? 22:52–26:24

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Carrie Clark 23 min

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Speech and Language Kids podcast 1 Carrie Clark 1 Jojo 19 Childhood apraxia of speech 1

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Recorded10 Feb 2025

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Show notes

When Should Children be able to Say Certain Sounds? (And How Can We Help?One of the top questions I get is about whether or not a child should be saying certain speech sounds. Let me tell you, there is a WIDE range of normal when it comes to speech sound acquisition. But in general, we know that certain sounds (like /b/ and /m/) come in early… …and other sounds (like /r/ and /l/) come in later. And knowing those milestones can help us decide which children need speech therapy, and which can wait it out. I’m speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark and in today’s episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I’ll be telling you what ages certain sounds should come in by and I’ll be giving you a Therapy Roadmap for how to help them if they’re not. Listen to the Podcast Here You can listen to the full podcast episode below: Ages for Speech Sounds:But before we get to the roadmap, let’s answer the question that everyone is asking: When should children be able to say each speech sound? I’ve got it all laid out for you right here: Speech Sounds By Age:The following sound chart represent the age of acquisition for the English speech sounds. The age below indicates that 90% of children are saying this sound consistently when they turn that age. For example, for the /b/ sound, 90% of children are able to produce the /b/ sound correctly in everyday speech by their third birthday. Click here to view the research behind this speech sound age chart. /b/ Sound…………………….3 years /n/ Sound…………………….3 years /m/ Sound……………………3 years /p/ Sound…………………….3 years /h/ Sound……………………3 years /w/ Sound…………………….3 years /d/ Sound……………………..3 years /g/ Sound (as in “go”)…….4 years /k/ Sound………………………..4 years /f/ Sound………………………….4 years /t/ Sound………………………….4 years “ng” Sound (as in, “ring”)……4 years “y” Sound (as in, “yum”)……..4 years /v/ Sound………………………….5 years “j” Sound (as in, “jam”)……….5 years /s/ Sound………………………….5 years “ch” Sound…………………………..5 years /l/ Sound…………………………….5 years “sh” Sound…………………………..5 years /z/ Sound …………………………..5 years /r/ Sound……………………………6 years Voiced “th” (“they”)……………..6 years Soft “j” (“beige”)………………….6 years Voiceless “th” (“thumb”)……….7 years * Keep in mind, most state education departments have their own chart of when children in the public schools qualify for services based on sound. These ages may be different than the research presented here. But there is a Wide Range of Normal!Ok wait! Before you post a comment telling me I’m wrong…. There is a wide range of “normal”. Many children acquire these sounds earlier or even later than these ages! Different research studies put these ages at different levels. This was a study done in 2020 but other studies have reported different findings. That’s because all children acquire sounds differently. How to Tell if the Child Needs Speech Therapy:Instead of getting hung up on the details… ….look for patterns. Is the child missing MANY of these sounds? Then there may be a problem. If the child is only slightly behind these ages, then we may not need to worry too much. A speech-language pathologist can do a full evaluation to see if there are enough red flags for us to feel that therapy is warranted. Therapy Roadmap for Speech Sound Therapy:So what do we do if we feel a child needs help with pronouncing speech sounds? We follow the roadmap. The first step of the roadmap is picking which road you want to follow first. There’s no wrong answer here, just go with the one that makes the most sense right now. (And revise your path later if they’re not making progress.) Choose a Road: Motor Speech Path: Choose this path if the child has motor speech problems, such as apraxia. These children tend to say words differently each time they try. Sometimes they can say a word clear as day and others not at all. Phonology Path: Choose this path if the child has trouble with certain classes or groups of sounds, such as “sounds at the ends of words” or “fricative sounds (long sounds like /s/ and /f/)”. Articulation Path: Choose this path if the child struggles with specific sounds, like the /r/ sound. Or if they have a lisp. The Mumblers Path: Choose this path if the child can say all speech sounds correctly in single words or shorter utterances but they’re hard to understand in conversational speech or when they start going fast. Motor Speech Roadmap:Instead of working on specific sounds, you’ll be working on specific word structures, like: Consonant-Vowel words like “go” or “hi” Vowel-Consonant words like “up” and “on” Consonant-Vowel-Consonant words like “cup” and “hat” etc. Choose one structure to practice at a time. When they can do those words, add a sound or add a new structure with sounds they can already say. Phonology Roadmap:Decide if you’ll work on one phonological process at a time or if you’ll use a Cycles Approach. Target that phonological process through these steps: Auditory Bombardment Auditory Discrimination Producing Class of Sounds in Single Words Producing Class of Sounds in Phrases Producing Class of Sounds in Sentences Producing Class of Sounds in Conversation Articulation Roadmap:Choose a sound to teach. Target that sound through these steps: Sound in Isolation Sound in Non-Sense Syllable Sound in Single Words Sound in Phrases Sound in Sentences Sound in Conversation Mumbling Roadmap:Teach the child how to overexaggerate their sounds and slow down. Teach over-articulation through these steps: Over-articulation in single words Over-articulation in phrases Over-articulation in sentences Noticing signs that someone doesn’t understand you Correcting by using over-articulation during moments that you aren’t understood Need Therapy Plans for These Skills?We have step-by-step therapy plans that will take you from start to finish on each of these skills. Get easy-to-follow plans that work for real kids in real sessions. Available with the Full, Paid Hub Membership here. The post When Should Children be Able to Say Certain Sounds? (And How Can We Help?) appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

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