Many parents reach a point where they realise other people aren’t understanding their child.
Maybe you find yourself repeating what your child has said so a grandparent or an educator can follow along. Maybe your child knows exactly what they want to say, and the words come out in a way that’s hard to catch. Maybe they’ve started giving up part-way through a sentence.
Maybe as caregivers you’d simply like some strategies to use at home.
It is completely understandable to feel unsure.
Speech sounds develop over several years, and children arrive at clear speech on their own timeline, but there are some checkpoints and key things to look for that help guide us with support if needed. Some of what you’re hearing may be an expected part of that process of learning new sounds. Some of it may be worth exploring.
If you’re noticing broader concerns around talking, understanding, or social connection rather than clarity specifically, our article on signs your child may need speech pathology might be a better place to start.
What unclear speech often sounds like
Sound error patterns are an expected part of speech sound development at certain ages. Once you know what to listen for, you may recognise a few of these in your own child.
Some common patterns involve swapping one sound for another. A child might say “seep” instead of “sheep”, using an “s” where an “sh” belongs.
Another is dropping a consonant out of a cluster. “Blue” becomes “bue” and “frog” becomes “fog”.
The word is still there, with one of the sounds missing from the consonant pair.
There are a wide range of patterns that can occur, a child that has quite a few of these patterns present can be harder to understand.
You may also notice with these patterns that your child can say the sound on it’s own but can’t say it in a word or sentence, or they may not be able to say the sound clearly at all.
Interdental lisps are also fairly common. The tongue comes forward between the front teeth on “s” and “z” sounds, when it would usually stay behind them.In the early years this can be age-appropriate. As children get older, some need guidance to change the motor plan for how they make those sounds.
Is it typical for their age, or worth exploring?
This is the question most parents actually want answered, and it’s a reasonable one to ask.
Most sound error patterns have resolved by around three and a half, and clarity tends to improve noticeably from that age. A few can linger a little longer, particularly with longer multisyllabic words like “caterpillar”, or with clusters of two or three consonants, where “splash” might come out as “blash”.
A useful reference point is how much an unfamiliar listener understands. Coplan and Gleason’s 1988 paper in the journal Pediatrics set out age-based guides for how intelligible a child’s speech should be to a stranger, and versions of those benchmarks are still used in clinics today.
As a general guide, we look for a child to be understood by an unfamiliar adult roughly 75% of the time by age three, and at least 90% of the time by age four.
The “unfamiliar listener” part matters. Research by McLeod, Harrison and McCormack, published in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research in 2012, found that parents of preschool children commonly rated their child as usually understood by immediate family and teachers, but only sometimes understood by strangers.
So if you understand your child easily and other people don’t, that gap is real information rather than something you’ve imagined.
Three and a half is a sensible check-in point if you have concerns. Earlier is also fine if you’d like some strategies to use at home, or if you notice a limited variety of sounds in your child’s speech.
“They can say it sometimes, so they must not be trying”
This is one of the most common things parents tell us, and it’s completely understandable.
You hear your child produce a sound clearly one moment and not the next. It looks like capability that comes and goes.
There’s usually a simpler explanation. Sounds are easier on their own or in short, simple words and harder in longer or more complex ones. A child might say “p” clearly in “up”, then find it much harder in “planet” or “spoon”, and harder again once that word sits inside a full sentence.
The same goes for the assumption that a child will grow out of it. Sometimes parents notice a little improvement and read it as a sign the whole thing is resolving on its own.
Sometimes it is. An assessment can tell you whether any further action is needed.
What is Childhood Apraxia of Speech?
Childhood Apraxia of Speech, often shortened to CAS, is a more complex speech sound disorder. It takes time to identify, and diagnosis draws on a broad range of assessments and speech samples rather than any single test.
A systematic review by Murray and colleagues, published in the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology in 2021, found that no single feature reliably separates CAS from other speech sound disorders. Speech pathologists weigh a number of factors together.
Some of the things we look for include vowel errors, difficulty moving from one sound to the next, and difficulty getting the muscles into position to start a word. Stress patterns can sound flatter, with every syllable carrying equal weight instead of alternating between strong and weak.
Others include an extra unstressed sound appearing in a word, so “blue” becomes “bahlue”, and difficulty turning the voice on and off, so “puppy” becomes “bubby”. Longer words are consistently harder.
CAS usually needs more intensive support than a speech delay or disorder. Naming it accurately matters, because it changes what kind of support works..
Speech is one way children communicate, not the only one
It’s worth stepping back from sounds for a moment.
Some children speak in long sentences from an early age, while others communicate in more subtle ways through gesture, sounds, signs, movement, facial expression, or behaviour. All of these are real communication.
When a child is hard to understand, frustration often shows up, and that frustration is communication too. A child who stops trying, changes the subject, or becomes overwhelmed is telling you something has become too hard, too much, or too demanding in that moment.
From a neuro-affirming perspective, we don’t see those responses as poor behaviour or a lack of effort. They’re signals about the demands in front of the child.
Different does not automatically mean something is wrong.
For some children, another way to communicate alongside speech is genuinely useful. AAC stands for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, and it covers a wide range of options: key word sign, visual supports and language boards, communication books, and speech-generating devices.
Using AAC does not stop speech from developing. It gives a child a reliable way to be understood while speech continues to grow or if they are minimally or non-speaking. .
What a speech pathology assessment involves
An assessment maps out the whole sound system rather than testing a handful of words.
We look at which sounds your child can and can’t produce, what error patterns are present, and whether those patterns are what we’d expect for their age. We also look at how your child gets their message across when they aren’t understood, and whether anything else is worth exploring alongside speech.
You’re valuable in the session. Most families walk out with a clearer picture of what’s happening and an idea about how best to move forward.
A good speech pathologist will not recommend therapy if it isn’t needed, and will usually be upfront early on if they think a different kind of support would serve your child better.
What to do if you’re still not sure
You don’t need a diagnosis, a referral, or a clear answer before you call us.
There are straightforward strategies parents can use to support speech sound development from an early age, and much of our work happens alongside caregivers rather than separately from them.
Seeking advice does not mean you’re overreacting Most families walk away with clarity and helpful information about their child.There is no pressure and no obligation.
How speech pathology works at SPOT Paediatrics
If speech sounds like the right starting point, you can find out more about what an assessment actually involves or our speech pathology services, covering speech sounds, language, literacy, social communication, and AAC.
We’re upfront about fees and funding from the very first phone call, and we work with NDIS plan-managed and self-managed participants, as well as families using a Medicare GPCCMP, M.10 Complex Neurodevelopmental Conditions, or paying privately, across Adelaide’s southern suburbs.
You might be asking “why can’t people understand my child?”, “when should I worry about unclear speech?”, or “is my child’s speech on track for their age?” These are exactly the kinds of questions we’re used to talking through with families.
We’re here to support you and your child in a respectful, supportive, practical way.