Speech sound ages

Also called Speech sound development, Articulation norms, Speech sound acquisition, Sound development chart

Which sounds come when, and which a five-year-old is still allowed to get wrong. "Wabbit" at four is normal; "tat" for cat at five is worth a look.

What it is

Speech sounds arrive in a fairly predictable order, over several years, and a chart of that order is what a therapist has in mind when they say a child's speech is "age-appropriate". Early sounds are the ones made at the front of the mouth with simple movements. The late ones need fine control of the tongue, and English has several that most children don't secure until five, six or later.

The point of knowing the ages is to tell an immaturity from a problem. A child who says "fink" for "think" at four is doing what most four-year-olds do. A child who drops the ends of words at four is not.

Who it can help

Parents and nursery and school staff deciding whether to worry. It's most useful between about two and seven. It doesn't map onto children whose speech is affected by a physical difference or a motor condition (cleft, cerebral palsy, childhood apraxia of speech), where the pattern is different and needs a therapist's eye.

The ages are also the reason not to "correct" a young child's speech. Sounds arrive when the control does. Modelling helps; correcting a three-year-old's "r" doesn't, and can make a child self-conscious about talking at all.

How it works

Broadly, and treating every age as "around": by two to three, the lip and simple tongue sounds are in: p, b, m, n, t, d, w, h, and vowels. By around three to four, k, g, ng, f, y and s are usually present, and speech is mostly clear to strangers. By around four to five, l, sh, ch, j and z. The latest group, r, v, th (both kinds), and the three-consonant clusters like "str" and "spl", commonly settle between five and seven, and a few children take longer with r and th without it meaning anything.

Alongside individual sounds, children simplify words using patterns (phonology): missing the ends of words, shortening clusters ("poon" for "spoon"), swapping back sounds for front ("tat"), and gliding ("wed" for "red"). Each has a typical age by which it fades, with gliding the last to go.

The signs that a therapist would want to see a child sooner: speech hard for family to follow at three, hard for strangers at four, sounds coming out with air through the nose, a very limited set of consonants at two, or any sign the child has noticed and is frustrated or withdrawing.

Getting started

Write down twenty words as the child says them and as they should be. Look for a pattern rather than a list of sounds; one rule usually explains most of it.

Model, don't correct. If they say "tar", you say "yes, a car, a red car", with the sound slightly stressed. Give them lots of chances to hear the target and none to feel wrong.

If the pattern is outside the ages above, or the child is frustrated, ask for a speech and language therapy referral. Speech sound therapy is short and effective when it's started at the right time, and waiting for school to sort it usually means waiting a year.

Where to get help

Speech and Language UK publishes what to expect for speech sounds at each age, and its helpline will talk it through. The NHS guide to 3 to 5 years covers clarity. The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists is the professional body; the referral goes through your GP, health visitor, school or, in most areas, directly from you.