From their initial babbles, to developing the understanding of words, then putting these into increasingly complex sentences to convey their thinking, children have a lot to learn about communicating their ideas and feelings. One component of this communication is mastering the different sounds in words. Commonly, words can be made up of a combination of phonemes (like /s/ in sound), digraphs (like /ch/ in children) and trigraphs (/tch/ like in scratch), however this list goes on!

Considering there are a total of 44 phonemes alone in the English language, without considering any other combination of letters to make sounds, it is clear that learning to speak is no easy task for children. 

What early educators, as well as parents may find is that children may not have full mastery of common sounds until they reach primary school, and it is important for us to understand that this is developmentally appropriate!

So when do children begin to master the pronunciation of different sounds?

Using the image sourced from @speechwithalex_ , you can notice that the biggest development in a child’s speech occurs around 3 years of age, with the voiceless /th/ like in think, usually being accurately spoken at the age of 7. 

So how can we support children in their speech development? The most effective way to build correct expression of sounds is to repeat back words with incorrect sounds in them, without expecting anything else from the child. Children will listen and absorb the correct sound and in turn begin to use this correct pronunciation when they are developmentally ready, which of course will differ for each child. In the meantime, we can just enjoy their cute pronunciation! 

For further information on speech development, visit @speechwithalex_ on instagram, or complete speech pathology

Cover image sourced from @speechwithalex_ 

VEYLF: Outcome 4, Outcome 5