Speech

When we talk about speech we mean the sounds that make up words. Sounding unclear is something we expect for young children. Parents / carers, and those who spend a lot of time around a child, will usually tune in to their speech before someone who is less familiar.

Speech sounds are not the same as letters. They are more like phonics sounds, but they are still different. Confusing!

To show the difference let’s take the word CIRCLE

This would be a tricky word to learn to spell and read with letters. In school they teach patterns and rules about sounds and letters through phonics to help children do this.

Usually children will be able to say the word circle before they can spell it or read it. This is because the speech sounds needed are not so tricky.

They need the sounds - sssss - eeerrr - k - l

Speech and Language Therapists sometimes use the International Phonetic Alphabet to record the sounds your child is using. You don’t need to worry about this, it’s what we’re here for. This looks like /sɜːkɫ̩/

Some speech sounds are easier than others. This means some typically develop before others. m p b f and other sounds that use our lips are often the first sounds to develop. Sounds like ‘th’ or ‘ch’ are some of the last.

There are lots of children who won’t fit the typical pattern of speech sound development. The following table should be used as a rough guide. We should also consider:

how long a child has been talking
if the child has any medical conditions
the child’s other milestones and development

Typical speech sound development

Sounds	Approximate age at which children can typically produce sounds
	50% of children		90% of children
Common vowel sounds	1 1/2 years to 2 years		3 years
p b m n t d w	1 1/2 years to 2 years		3 years
k g f h y	1 1/2 years to 3 years		4 years
ng s	1 1/2 years to 3 years		5 years
l	3 to 3 1/2 years		6 years
sh ch j z v	3 1/2 years to 4 1/2 years		6 years
r	4 1/2 years to 5 years		7 years
th (as in ‘thing’)	4 1/2 years to 5 years		7 years
th (as in ‘the’)	4 1/2 years to 5 years		7 years
zh (as in ‘vision’)	4 1/2 years to 5 years		7 years

As speech sounds develop in a particular order young children will be unable to say all words clearly. Typical changes you may hear include:
Missing off the ends of words, e.g. ‘bed’ is said as ‘be’		This is common up to the age of 3 ½
Sounds made at the back of the mouth (k or g) are made at the front of the mouth, e.g. ‘car’ is said as ‘tar’		This is common up to the age of 4
A long sound (s) is said as a short sound (t), e.g. ‘see’ is said as ‘tee’		This is common up to the age of 4
When two sounds are said together (sp) one sound is missed off, e.g. ‘spider’ is said as ‘pider’		This is common up to the age of 4 ½

Some children will have structural differences that impact their speech. These are called Cleft Lip and Palate and Velopharyngeal Insufficiency. Sometimes these difference are identified early, even before birth. Sometimes they are only noticed when there are difficulties with their speech.

What you might notice if your child would benefit from support with their speech skills

Your child might:

be tricky to understand, even by you
be understood by you, but not strangers
have a preferred sound they use often
not use consonant sounds at the start or end of words
substitute sounds with other sounds

How you can help

Check out our Five Top Tips Video to find out more about how you can help:

Our advice leaflets contain lots of helpful information and ideas of things you can try at home to help.

Speech: 5 Top Tips leaflet [PDF 273KB]

What we can offer

Advice service

You can speak to one of our Speech and Language Therapists via our advice service. We can make suggestions about what might help and answer any questions you might have.

Our advice service is open every Thursday 9.30am to 12.30pm.
Tel: 01228 608177
Email: CumbriaCommmunicates@ncic.nhs.uk

Advice and support sessions

We run online Advice and Support Sessions for parents and carers. A few may be helpful for your child.

These sessions include information on:

speech sound systems and typical development
strategies to help children notice sounds in words
what we know helps
strategies to support children when their talking is tricky to understand

To book a place email: SLTCumbriaTraining@ncic.nhs.uk

To find out more about our other advice and support sessions check out our Support Sessions and Training Available section.

Making a Request for Support

Anyone, including parents and carers, can request support from Speech and Language Therapy. You can do this via our Request for Support Form.

The support we offer is always tailored to the needs of your child. Some children benefit from individualised support, others benefit from support in their environment.

Many children who have speech sound difficulties will see a Speech and Language Therapist for clinic appointments. We want to see children at a suitable developmental level for a sound they need to work on, which is why we sometimes recommend other things first. As parents and carers, it is important you are included in these sessions. You will need to practice the activities at home. This is vital in supporting your child to change their speech.

Assessment and Therapy may include:

listening and identifying the difference between sounds
information about how we make sounds
thinking about sounds in a chosen set of words
showing your child pictures and asking them to say the words
asking them to copy sounds and words
asking your child to make different shapes with their mouth and tongue
looking inside your child's mouth
trying different techniques to make sounds, sometimes using words that are not real like ‘sah’
using chosen words and games to practice
lots of repetition of activities and sounds

To support your child to be ready to work their speech sounds we might recommend focusing on a different area of communication first. This might be language to build up their vocabulary and sentences, or attention so they are able to get more from the sessions.

Speech and Language Therapy support children with their speech sounds when there is impact on;

making friends
learning
joining in at home and at school
their message being heard
confidence and self esteem

We discharge at a point when:

children need time to develop or practice a sound before coming back to Speech and Language Therapy for more support

they are able to use sounds they found tricky in words and phrases. Using it in conversation often comes later.

Speech and Language - information for families