Speech sounds

Word final voicing errors 

This is where a child produces a loud sound as a quiet sound at the end of a word. For example, 'bag' produced as 'bat'. 

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This is a typical phonological error which usually resolves at the age of 3;0 years.

Deleting the final sound in a word 

Young children may delete the final sound in a word. This is known as final consonant deletion. For example, 'bat' produced as 'ba'. 

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This is a typical phonological error which usually resolves at the age of 3;3 years.

/k/ and /g/  sound errors 

Some children may have difficulty acquiring the /k/ and /g/ sound and they may instead produce these sounds as a /t/ and a /d/. When doing this, children are substituting the back sounds (k and g) for sounds produced as the front of the mouth (t, d).  For example, 'cat' produced as 'tat', 'gate' produced as 'date'. 

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This is a typical phonological error which usually resolves at the age of 3;6 years.

/s/ /z/ /f/ /v/ sound errors

Some children may have difficulty producing /s/, /z/, /f/ and /v/ sounds. Instead, a child may produce these sounds as a /t/, /d/, /p/ or /b/. For example, 'sun' produced as 'dun', 'fan' produced as 'ban'. When doing this, your child is producing the long sounds (s, f, z, v) as the short sounds (p, b, t, d).

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This is a typical phonological process which typically resolves between the ages of 3;0-3;6 years. 

Reducing 2 consonants to 1 consonant

Some children may have difficulty producing sounds which begin with 2 consonants together, (consonanat clusters)  and instead these words may be reduced to one consonant. Example consonant clusters includes: sp, st, sk, sn, sm, sl, sw, br, bl, cl, tr,. Common errors include 'stairs' produced as 'sairs', or 'dairs', 'snail' produced as 'nail', 'brick' produced as 'bick'. 

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This is a typical phonological process which typically resolves by the age of 4 years.

/sh/, /ch/ and /j/ sound errors 

Some children may have difficulty acquiring the /ch/, /sh/ and /j/ sound and these sounds may be replaced for a /t/, /d/ or /s/ sound.  For example, 'chair' produced as 'dairs', 'shoe' produced as 'soe', 'jelly' produced as 'delly'. 

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This is a typical phonological process which typically resolves by the age of 4;6 years.

/r/ and /l/  errors 

Some children may have difficulty acquiring the /r/ and /l/ sound and they are commonly replaced by a /w/ or a /y/. For example, 'rabbit', produced as 'wabbit', 'leaf' produced as 'weaf'.

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This is a typical phonological process which typically resolves by the age of 5 years.

/th/ sound errors 

Some children may have difficulty using the /th/ sound, and this is often replaced with a /d/. 

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This is a typical phonological process which typically resolves by the age of 5 years.

Other speech sound error patterns 

Sometimes children may make speech sound errors which do not follow a typical pattern of development. This may include:

• /t/ and /d/ produced as a /k/ and a /g/  (front sounds replaced with back sounds)

• Initial consonant deletion (removing the first sound in a word)

• Replacing sounds with a /h/ 

• Long sounds replacing short sounds (using a /s/, /f/, /v/, /z/ in replace of a /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/)

• Producing gliding sounds /r/, /y/, /l/ with short sounds ( using a /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, in replace of a /r/, /l/, /w/, /y/

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We call these errors, atypical phonological processes, as they do not follow the typical pattern of speech sound development. Where these errors occur, speech pathology intervention is highly recommended.

When should you see a speech therapist?

If your child's speech is difficult to understand to familiar adults, your child is becoming frustrated, they have exceeded the age we would expect their errors to resolve, or they are demonstrating atypical  speech sound errors, it is highly recommended that your child accesses a speech pathologist to support with this area.

It is also recommended that your child accesses an up to date hearing assessment, in order to ensure your child is able to identify all of the speech sounds.