How do I know if my child has a speech sound delay or disorder?
As speech pathologists in Adelaide, we work with children who experience speech sound delays or disorders to support them to achieve correct production of their speech sounds so that they can clearly communicate their message and be understood by others. However, sometimes it may be difficult to determine when your child’s speech errors are age appropriate or when they may benefit from further support from a speech pathologist.
The following guidelines indicate at which age 90% of children are able to appropriately articulate each speech sound (Norms based on McLeod & Crowe, 2018):
2 to 3 years
p, b, m, d, n, h, t, k, g, w, ng, f, y
4 years
l, j, ch, s, v, sh, z
5 years
r, zh
5 to 6 years
th
For example, if your toddler is 3 years old and having difficulty producing the /r/ sound this would be considered as age appropriate because that sound is not expected to develop until they are 5 years old. However, if your preschooler or school-age child is 5 years old and experiences difficulties producing /k/ and /g/, they may benefit from an assessment by a speech pathologist as these sounds were expected to be produced correctly by 2 to 3 years old.
How can I help my child with their speech sounds?
Parents and caregivers are in a great position to model speech sounds for their child and can encourage additional opportunities for their child to practice their speech sound production. This can be gentle practice at home while their speech sounds are still developing.
The following strategies are recommended to support your child’s speech sound development at home:
- Modelling is a technique used to provide additional opportunities for a child to hear language with correct speech in an indirect and conversational way. Modelling involves you as the parent/caregiver giving comments and providing examples of what your child could say that using the target sound in your conversational speech so that they can become familiar with how it is produced.
- Recasting involves reproducing what your child has said so your child has the opportunity to hear their utterances said back to them but with the correct speech sounds. When recasting we are not aiming for the child to repeat what we say, but to hear a correct production of what they have just attempted to say so they can add it to their storage system supporting them the next time they say something similar. It is a less direct way to model language structures without interrupting the flow of conversation (e.g. child says “I want the wabbit” then the parent/caregiver says “I want the rabbit” then the conversation continues.
- Encourage your child to look at your mouth when repeating new or tricky words. This allows them to gain more information about how to make the sound with their lips/tongue/teeth.
- Refrain from requesting your child to repeat everything they say as this can sometimes result in withdrawal and retreat. Whilst new sounds are emerging and being practiced it can be helpful to leave the imitation and prompts to copy to speech practice time (10-15 minutes a day).
There are many ways to naturally and incidentally teach new sounds and words that you can try in a range of daily activities:
- Comment and bring their attention to sounds at the start of words when reading books (e.g. “The cat sat on the mat, I can hear a /k/ at the start of cat, /k/ for cat!”)
- Praise your child when you hear them say a tricky sound correctly (e.g. “wow, I heard a great /m/ sound when you said mum! Well done!”)
- Play with sounds (e.g. pop balloons and say “pop” “pop” and then try /p/ together, drive cars and say “vroom”, play with animal sounds “moo” “baa” “ney” “quack”)
- Singing songs can be another great way to incidentally teach new words and sounds. After your child is familiar with a new song, pause at the end of the line to give your child a chance to complete the line (e.g. Old McDonald had a…, Incy Wincy…).
Some children that have difficulty with speech sound production may not improve with general home strategies alone. For children who are not yet using verbal communication to express themselves, AAC may also be worth exploring. Our team of speech pathologists at SPOT provide individualised support for your child by completing speech assessment to look at all speech sounds and determine what the nature of their speech difficulties are and then formulate targeted therapy goals alongside caregivers.
Speech pathologists may incorporate specific verbal and visual prompting cues, and feedback tailored to the speech sounds that are tricky to support them to achieve the correct production.
Speech pathologists can also provide further parent training to support parents to learn the feedback and cues and carry on with home practice to work towards their goals. This can also include the speech pathologist creating speech home resource packs containing games and activities to provide further opportunities for speech practice at home.
If you do have concerns about your child’s speech sound development, a speech pathologist can offer assessments to identify whether difficulties may also be affecting early literacy skills and offer further individualised supports and speech therapy intervention.
We support families across southern Adelaide — including Brighton, Glenelg, Somerton Park, Marion, and Mitcham — from our clinic in Hove, SA.
Feel free to learn about funding options and fees or reach out to our friendly team by calling 7228 6825 or emailing admin@spotpaediatrics.com.au for more information.