I Can't Understand My Child!!
Do you ever feel like your child isn’t speaking as intelligibly as other children their age? If so, you are not alone! Many parents often see other children speaking more clearly or in full sentences and wonder, “Why is my child not speaking like that?”
In the Early Language Development: Handouts and Activities by Super Duper Publications, they describe articulation/speech perfectly when they say:
“Articulation, or the pronunciation of speech sounds in words, is a complicated motor skill. A great analogy is to think about articulation like riding a two-wheeled bicycle. Some children will get on a bicycle, wobble a little, and then take off with hardly any spills. They have learned to peddle, steer, brake, and balance all at the same time. Other children with take months to coordinate it all and have Band-Aids all over to prove it! The mouth is like that bicycle, and your teeth, lips, and tongue are the pedals, handlebars, and brakes that must all work together to achieve speech sounds.
- Linda Mawhinney & Mary Scott McTeague
So, as a parent, what can you expect??
It is perfectly normal for those first words to not sound perfectly intelligible. The important things is that your child is using sounds or word-like approximations in order to functionally communicate! If you want to correct your child’s production of a word, try modeling it for them rather than telling them, “No, that’s not how you say that.” For example, if your child says “sie” for outside, say “You just said outside! Let’s go outside!”. This provides a model for pronouncing the word correctly and eventually your child’s speech should improve.
What sounds should you expect first?? See below for typical sound development.
2 years old: p, d, m, w, h, n
3 years old: t, b, k, g
4-5 years old: f, v, y
5-7 years old: s, z, j, l, r, sh, ch, th, blends (sp, st, fl, etc.)
Don’t be alarmed if some of those middle and end sounds appear more difficult for your child. That is completely normal when your child is beginning to master his/her speech sounds!
Check out my next blog on how to elicit more sound imitation from your child!!
