SPEECH DEVELOPMENT BY AGE

By age 3 your child’s speech should be 75% understandable, and by age 4 at or near 100% understandable.
Between ages 3 and 4 your child should be able to say the following speech sounds in words and phrases : /p/, /b/, /m/, /n/, /t/,/d/, /k/, /g/, /f/, /s/, /y/, /h/.
Between ages 5-6 your child should be able to say the following speech sounds in words and sentences: /p/, /b/, /m/, /n/, /t/,/d/, /k/, /g/, /f/, /s/, /y/, /h/, “sh”, “ch”, “j”, /z/, /L/, and /v/.
Your child should be able to say the /r/ and /th/ sounds in conversation.
Your child should be proficient in all speech sounds at the conversational speech level.

When to schedule a speech therapy evaluation

Your child is not developing speech sounds expected for their age.
Your child is frustrated when communicating. They become upset when you can’t understand them or ask them to repeat themself
Your child is unable to clearly communicate their wants, needs and ideas
Your child is having difficulty communicating with adults and other children in the community

Your child has a history of hearing loss/ chronic ear infection and is not developing speech sounds at the expected rate for their age
You have a family history of speech impairment requiring speech therapy and your child has difficulty producing expected speech sounds for their age.
Your school age child is having difficulty learning letter sounds, and having difficulty sounding out words for reading and spelling due to their speech sound errors