Which speech sounds should my child be able to say, and by what age?

Which sounds can children say at each age?

I've built these lists on one source, a 2020 review of 15 studies covering 18,907 children learning English in the United States. It found that most consonants had been acquired by age five, and it grouped them by the age band in which children had, on average, acquired them.¹ The ages show when most children have a sound, not a deadline, and children vary. The data are American, so a UK accent may move a few sounds slightly.

Acquired at 2 to 3 years

• b, n, m, p, h, w and d

Acquired at 3 to 4 years

• g, k, f, t, ng (as in sing) and y

Acquired at 4 to 5 years

• v, j (as in jump), s, ch, l, sh and z

Acquired at 5 to 6 years

• r, th as in this, and the zh sound in measure

Acquired at 6 to 7 years

• th as in thing

The review's authors note that the ages varied between studies because of different tests, criteria and groups of children.¹ If the adults around your child say "fing" for "thing", your child saying it too is an accent and not an error.²

How much of my child's speech should other people understand?

Speech and Language UK gives a rough pattern. At two, families can usually understand their child about half the time.³ By three, people who know the child can mostly understand them.⁴ By four, adults who don't know them can mostly understand them.⁵ By five, people who don't know them understand them all the time.⁶

A study of 538 typically developing children asked adult listeners who didn't know the children to write down what they heard on recordings. It found a lot of variation between children, and concluded that children should be at least 50% intelligible by 48 months.⁷ That's a minimum and not a target. Listeners on a recording get no help from context, so in real conversation, where they can see what a child is pointing at, they probably follow more.

Which sounds arrive late, and is that normal?

Yes. In the American data r, th, sh and z were among the last to arrive, between four and seven.¹ Speech and Language UK tells parents not to worry if a four- or five-year-old still struggles with th, str or r, or says "wabbit" for rabbit.⁶ Before about three, children also make predictable errors that usually fade as the right sound comes in: t for k (cat sounds like tat), missing the last sound of a word, or missing a part of a long word (banana sounds like nana).²

Those early patterns are of more concern if they carry on beyond three and your child is hard to understand in everyday life.² A lisp, where s sounds like th, or r said as w, is called an articulation difficulty. It usually affects only a few sounds, but some children find it gets them down, and the RCSLT says a referral can help.²

What if my child is growing up with more than one language?

Then the English lists above only tell part of the story, because every language has its own order. The RCSLT says children develop speech sounds in the pattern of the language they're learning.² A review of 60 articles on 26,007 children in 27 languages found that most of the world's consonants were acquired by about age five, and that by then children produced at least 93% of consonants correctly. Across languages, plosives and nasals came earlier than trills, flaps, fricatives and affricates.⁸ So late-arriving sounds aren't just an English thing.

The RCSLT says children growing up with two or more languages develop speech sounds in all of them at about the same time, depending on how much of each they hear, and the language they hear most usually develops earlier. That isn't a problem.² The question is whether your child's sounds are developing in line with other children who speak the same language. My guide to bilingual children and talking goes into more detail, and please keep speaking your home language.

When is it worth asking someone to listen?

When you've noticed something and it's staying put. These are the things I'd take seriously.

• You can't follow most of what your child says at two to three, or adults who don't know them find them hard to understand at three to four⁴⁵
• Your child isn't cooing, babbling or using many sounds between birth and two, which is worth raising with your health visitor²
• Your child gets upset when people don't understand them
• Your child has lost sounds or words they used to say

You may have been told to wait and see. The RCSLT says a small number of children with speech sound difficulties do catch up on their own, but for young children it isn't clear which ones, and asking is always advised if you're worried.² About 12 children in every 100 have a speech sound disorder, and about half of those also have language difficulties, so you wouldn't be alone.²

You can start with your health visitor, your GP, or the SENCO (special educational needs coordinator) at your child's nursery or school, all of which are free. The RCSLT says some NHS speech and language therapy services take referrals from parents and some only from health visitors or schools.² If your child has lost speech they had, ask your GP for an appointment promptly. Good hearing helps speech sounds develop, so if you're worried about their hearing, mention it to your GP or health visitor, and take up any hearing tests you're offered.²

What can I do at home when I can't understand my child?

Give them a good clear model, and help them without making them feel they've failed. The RCSLT suggests a few things to try.²

• Ask them to show you what they mean, then say the words back ("OK, you want to play with the Lego?")
• Offer two words ("Do you want the rabbit or the elephant?")
• Swap open questions for choices ("Did you play football or rounders at school?")
• Guess ("Is it in the garden or the kitchen?")

It also says not to ask your child to repeat words after you, however tempting, because it may lead them to avoid certain words.²

What happens if I get in touch?

Start with a free 15-minute call and tell me what you've noticed. If an assessment would help, it's mostly play and costs £270. You don't need a GP referral, and seeing me doesn't take your child off an NHS waiting list. You can read what a session involves in the guide to what happens at a speech assessment, find out more on my speech sounds and apraxia page, and see every cost on the fees page.