Developmental Norms for Speech Sounds

Children are unique in the way they develop their skills. It’s often difficult for parents to determine if their child’s speech errors are age-appropriate. A research study by McLeod and Crowe, 2018 identified the average age that English spoken children acquire their consonants. Read about their findings below.

Around 2-3 years old, children should produce the following sounds correctly: p (pig), b (bus), d (dog), t (toy), k (cat), g (go), m (my), n (no), ng (ring), f (fish), h (hi), y (yes).

By 4 years old, children should produce the following sounds correctly: l (lion), j (jump), ch (chocolate), s (sun), z (zoo), v (van), sh (shoe).

By 5 years old, children should produce the following sounds correctly: r (red), zh (treasure), voiced th (the).

By 6 years old, children should produce the following sounds correctly: voiceless th (think).

Although the examples above are in the ‘initial’ consonant position, these sounds can emerge in the medial and final consonant position. It is important to keep track of these norms because speech sound errors can impact your child’s intelligibility. Intelligibility refers to the percentage of speech output that is understood.  The less intelligible your child is, the more difficulty they will have expressing themselves to others which in turn can cause frustration and unfavorable behaviors. Below are the percentages that an unfamiliar listener should understand your child’s speech during conversation. 

2 years old: 50% intelligible

3 years old: 75% intelligible

4-5 years old: 100% intelligible 

Please recognize that these are the average ages children acquire their speech sounds. You are welcome to contact us via phone or email should you have questions or concerns regarding your child’s speech sound development. 

With Love,

RM Studio

Reference: McLeod, S., & Crowe, K. (2018). Children's consonant acquisition in 27 languages: A cross-linguistic review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27(4), 1546–1571.