Is my child’s speech developing as it should?
My child is struggling to pronounce certain speech sounds, what does this mean?
I can understand my child, but other people seem to struggle with understanding my child. Should I be concerned?
These are some of the frequently asked questions by parents when it comes to speech and speech development. Remember it is expected that a younger child’s speech intelligibility will be poor. There are norms for the development of each individual speech sound and it might be that your child is struggling with some speech sounds that are age appropriate. However, by the age of 7 years all the speech sounds should be developed.
One of the important factors that contribute to speech intelligibility is hearing. If your child’s hearing has not been tested recently and his/her speech intelligibility is poor, get their hearing tested as soon as possible. They might be missing out on important learning opportunities!
Here are some risk factors to help you understand what could be contributing to your child’s poor speech intelligibility:
With thanks to:
Caroline Bowen Ph.D. in Speech and Language Pathology