My Child Is Below Five: Are Speech Errors ‘Normal’?

Children develop each speech sound at a specific age. For instance, the ‘m sound’ is one of the first sounds to develop at around the age of one. Whereas, the ‘r sound’ is one of the latest sounds to develop, and may take until the age of seven.

When a child has not yet developed certain speech sounds, they will have speech sound errors. These errors are considered a ‘typical’ part of speech development.

The speech sound errors below are all considered ‘age-approriate’ if you child is below the age of five:

1.     Replacing the ‘r sound’ with the ‘w sound’.
For instance, your child says ‘wun’ instead of ‘run’.
 
2.     Omitting the ‘r sound’ from ‘r clusters’.
For instance, your child says ‘tee’ instead of ‘tree’.
 
3.     A Frontal Lisp: Your child protrudes their tongue between their top and bottom front teeth when producing sounds such as ‘s’ and ‘z’.
 
4.     Omitting the ‘s sound’ from ‘s clusters’.
For instance, your child says ‘top’ instead of ‘stop’.
 
5.     Replacing the voiceless ‘th sound’ with the ‘f sound’.
For instance, your child says ‘fing’ instead of ‘thing’.
 
6.     Replacing the voiced ‘th sound’ with the ‘d sound’.
For instance, your child says ‘dat’ instead of ‘that’.
 
7.     Replacing the ‘ch sound’ with the ‘t sound’.
For instance, your child says ‘tip’ instead of ‘chip.’
 
8.     Replacing the ‘j sound’ with the ‘d sound’.
For instance, your child says ‘duice’ instead of ‘juice’.
 
9.     Replacing the ‘l sound’ with the ‘w sound’.
For instance, your child says ‘wate’ instead of ‘late’.
 
10.  Replacing the ‘l sound’ with the ‘y sound’.
For instance, your child says ‘yip’ instead of ‘lip’.
 
It is important to note however, that not all speech sound errors below the age of five are considered age-appropriate or a typical part of speech development. If your child has speech errors which are not mentioned above, consult with a speech-language therapist.

Speak soon,
The Expat Speechie
© COPYRIGHT 2016. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

​I would like to acknowledge and thank the following source:
​Bowen, C. (2011). Table 2: Phonological Processes. Retrieved from http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/ on 22/8/2016.