Speech sounds

Speech Sound image

What is it?

In order for children to speak clearly, they need to be able to hear differences between sounds, remember and say sounds accurately, and then sequence them into words.

Children can present with a number of difficulties which can impact on their ability to speak clearly and be understood by others – we refer to these as speech sound difficulties. These can include difficulties with:

Making a specific sound
Coordinating the movements of the tongue and lips to sequence sounds in words
Organising speech sounds accurately so they can be used in words

All children have immature speech skills when they are learning to speak. It is important to remember that it is normal for children to make certain errors in their speech, such as replacing trickier sounds with easier sounds or missing sounds out in words that they will use in others. The table below shows the patterns that we may see in a child with typically developing speech (sound development as children grow and develop).

A child may have speech sound difficulties, if their difficulties continue beyond the ages shown or they present with patterns that are not usually seen in typically developing speech. In some cases, these may be temporary and resolve without intervention. For other children, the difficulties will not go away without support from a Speech and Language Therapist

The table shows expected errors that children may make while developing their speech.

Changes	Examples	Expected Age
Missing sounds off the end of words	‘park’ - ‘par’ ‘tap’ - ‘ta’	Up to 3 years
Using the same sounds in words	‘soap’ – ‘poap’ ‘case’ – ‘cake’	Up to 3 years
Changing quiet sounds - p, t, k to noisy sounds – b, d, g	‘pot’ - ‘bot’ ‘tap’ - ‘dap’ ‘cat’ - ‘gat’	Up to 3 years
Changing long sounds - f, s to short sounds - p/b, t/d	‘feet’ - ‘peet’ or ‘beet’ ‘sun’ - ‘tun’ or ‘dun	Up to 3 years, 6 months
Changing back sounds - k to front sounds t/d	‘car’ - ‘tar’ or ‘dar’ ‘bike’ - ‘bite’	Up to 4 years
Changing ‘sh’, ‘ch’, ‘j’	‘fish’ – ‘fis’ ‘children’ – ‘tildren’ ‘orange’ – ‘oranz	Up to 5 years
Changing two sounds to just one sound	‘tree’ – ‘tee’ or ‘dee’ ‘grass – ‘dass’ or ‘gass’ ‘spots’ – ‘bots’	Up to 5 years
Changing ‘l’ and ‘r’	‘leaf’ – ‘jeaf’ ‘roof’ – ‘woof’	Up to 6 years

What to look for.

Some children have speech difficulties which are not expected during development.

These include:
Over 3 years old and parent/carer cannot understand most of the time.
Over 3 years old and less than 5 different consonant sounds produced on the Mini Speech Screen.
Over 3 years old and often does not repeat the words when asked (check words with a dash (-) on the Mini Speech screen).
Over 4 years and new people cannot understand most of the time
Over 4 years old and does not repeat p, t, c/k, f, s accurately as single sounds.
Over 4 years and often did not say the words on their own (check words marked with an asterisk (*) on the Mini Speech Screen)
Any age and always misses sounds off at the beginning of words, e.g. 'food', - 'ood', 'duck' - 'uck'.
Any age and always changes sounds to c/k or g, e.g. 'two' - 'coo', 'sea' - 'key', 'ball' - 'gall'.

Mini Speech Screen

The Mini Speech Screen is referenced in the table above.

You can download the Mini Speech Screen here:

Speech Screen Guide

Speech Screen Pictures.

Speech Screen Record Sheet

Parents/Carers - you may want to speak to your child's or young person's education setting if you have any concerns with regards to their speech sounds and would like to fill in this Speech Screen. You could also look at the Top Tips with the education setting.

The Cat and Dog Test

As children develop their speech and language skills, it is important to think about their understanding of language, their talking (using words and sentences) and their speech (speaking clearly). If we notice a difficulty, it may not be a ‘stand alone problem’. If a child has unclear speech or they are not talking as much as other children, they may have problems with understanding language. Please complete the Cat and Dog Test as well as the Mini Speech Screen before making a referral for speech difficulties.

You can download The Cat and Dog Test here:

The Cat and Dog Test Guide
The Cat and Dog Test Pictures
The Cat and Dog Test Record Sheet

When to refer for speech difficulties

Complete Mini Speech Screen and The Cat and Dog Test for children aged 3 and above. (Mini Speech Screen is above this section).

Compare how the child is talking with the two tables above (The expected and not expected errors).

Interventions

If the child isn’t talking as expected for their age, then the following ideas will help support the child.

· Contrastive Pairs – check with your nursery/school to see if they have received this training. Our Training.

· Top 10 Speech Tips (you will find these below this section)

· Stoke Speaks Out -this website has lots of ideas to support speech development

· Speech Link - this is a commercial speech package available for schools to purchase.

Please try out these ideas with the child, if you still have concerns then consider making a referral (Early Years referral form / School Aged referral form). Please keep a record of the activities you have tried as we will ask you about these on the referral.

Also to consider.

Children who have speech problems often have language difficulties too. If the child is not regularly putting 3 words together, please refer to advice for children with language difficulties before you refer.

Here are some examples of joining 3 words together.

e.g., I like football.

Mummy’s car is blue

Give me the big cup.

Top Tips.

Top 10 Tips for Helping Your Child with Unclear Speech

Get down to your child’s level so that you are talking face to face. This will help your child to focus on what you say and pick up clues about how sounds and words are made.

Reduce background noise when talking together. Switch off the TV or devices to limit distractions and make it easier to listen to the words you say to each other.

Try to use a steady pace when talking to your child, especially if your child is speaking too quickly. They will mirror your rate of talking and this may help to improve clarity.

Try not to use too many words. Add simple language as you play and take turns to talk.

Respond to what your child has said rather than how clearly they have said it.

When your child is struggling to get their message across, encourage other ways of communicating to reduce frustration:
Act it out
Find, show or point to it
Draw it
Problem solve e.g. Is it something at home or at gran’s house?

Try to build your child’s self- esteem by spending special 1:1 time together. Sharing a book or playing a game together gives context which can help you to interpret what your child is telling you. Try to repeat back what is said to reassure him/her that you have understood:
Child: "biderman tan dime up wall"
Adult: "Wow, spiderman can climb up the wall – that’s cool!"

When you don’t understand, take the pressure and focus off your child. Help him/her to think of other ways of getting the message across.
For example, "My ears aren’t working so well today; can you show me?"

When your child mispronounces a word, the best way you can help is to give a good speech model. You can do this by saying the word back to your child clearly in conversation, emphasising the important sound slightly.
For example, if your child says "do" for shoe, say, "You can’t find your other shoe? Here is your shoe! Shoe on."
This way your child will have heard 3 good models of the word and it will help to raise his/ her awareness of how the word sounds.

Help your child to become more aware of sounds using the activities in this download.