Common Speech Errors and When They Typically Resolve
- Posted by spectrum
- On November 17, 2022
- 0
When it comes to Speech Pathologists, we are most well-known for treating lisps and other difficulties with how sounds are produced. While this is only a small part of what we specialise in, speech errors can have a large impact on how we are able to be understood by others and so are an important area of our work.
Speech errors refer to when a sound is not produced as it would be typically and can happen to any sound! Speech errors are a typical part of children’s development and most speech errors are expected up to a certain age.
Below are the ages that common errors typically resolve:
- Stopping of long sounds (e.g., ‘s’, ‘sh’, ‘f’, ‘v’ and ‘sh’) around 3.5 – 4 years of age
- Reducing clusters to one sound (e.g., ‘nail’ instead of ‘snail’) around 4 years of age
- Difficulties with ‘l’ around 4 years of age
- ‘r’ around 5 years of age
- ‘th’ around 6 years of age
Errors that are not seen in typical language development and are not expected at any age:
- Omitting the first sound in a word (e.g., “up” instead of ‘cup’)
- Front sounds (e.g., ‘t’, ‘d’, ‘s’) becoming back sounds (e.g., ‘k’, ‘g’)
- Replacing sounds with ‘h’
- Replacing long sounds (e.g., ‘f’, ‘v’, ‘s’, ‘z’, ‘sh’) with “glides” (e.g., ‘y’, ‘w’)
If you have concerns with your child’s speech or speech errors, call our clinic today on 02 9686 2306 and we can organise a time for you to chat with one of our friendly and qualified Speech Pathologists.