Articulation
Articulation (Speech Sounds)
Articulation refers to how we pronounce sounds within words. It is typical for children to make some speech sound errors as they develop through the language acquisition stages. For example, your child might say "lellow" for "yellow" and "wed" for "red." These errors are acceptable in early stages of language acquisition, but they should resolve by a certain ages in development.
Typical Development of Speech Sounds:
Age 3: m, n, p, b, t, d, h, w, y
Age 4: k, g, f, ng
Age 5: r, l, s, sh, th, z, dg, ch, zh, v, and all blends (r, l, and s)
Children who are having difficulty with the sounds listed above or who are not understood by family, friends, and teachers may benefit from an articulation evaluation. This will assess whether the errors are age-appropriate or whether speech therapy is necessary to improve articulation and overall intelligibility (how well the child is understood by others).