PARENT: “What do you want?” Child: “Muh meh”
PARENT: “Huh?
Child: “Muh Meh!!!”
Parent: "I'm sorry...I just don't understand"
Your child starts to cry and tantrum
Can you guess what this 18-month-old child was asking for? This is a common example of how a toddler's speech may sound when they are beginning to ask for, ‘more milk.’
Between the early ages of 1-4 years, most parents rely heavily on the use of their child’s gestures (pointing, eye gaze, reaching towards desired objects) as clues to help them decipher what they are actually saying. That is because toddlers have not yet developed the oral motor abilities needed to correctly produce the majority of speech sounds that make up their language. Consequently, a young child will use the speech sounds that they DO know how to say (think early developing ‘babble’ sounds like ‘m,d,b’) and will do their best to say everything that they know using ONLY these sounds.
This is why your toddler’s speech is SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND! It’s not only frustrating for parents…but it’s equally (or more) frustrating for your children when they aren’t understood by the adults around them that they are fully dependent on. We’ve compiled some useful information below to help you determine when you may actually expect to better understand your child’s speech - if their speech is typically developing.
While all children are unique, there are certain ‘developmental speech sounds’ that most children usually acquire between the age when they begin to speak (typically around one years of age) through six years old. We summarized the following information from the American Speech and Hearing Association's website, which has a more detailed list of communication milestones from birth through the age of six years:
What speech sounds should my toddler be producing correctly now?
o 7-9 months old: babbles strings of sounds like ‘mamama’ and ‘bababa’
o 10-12 months: attempts to say one or two words (“mama, dada, bye”)
o 13 – 18 months: child uses a combination of strings of sounds, syllables and real words with a speech-like inflection
o 19-24 months: A child uses around 50 words and begins to put two words together but still makes many errors in their speech sounds (e.g. “du” for “shoe”, “bah” for “bag”)
o 2-3 years: a child should now correctly produce the consonant sounds ‘p,b,m,h,w,d,n’ and most vowels in words, most of the time.
o 4 years: By the age of four, most people can understand what your child will say…though they still may make errors when saying sounds like’ r’ and ‘th’. They should now be able to correctly produce more consonant sounds like ‘k,g,t,d,f,ch,sh,s,j,l’ which makes it much easier to understand their speech (especially to unfamiliar listeners).
o 5-6 years: a child should now be able to produce most consonants correctly and their speech should be easy to understand in conversation.
If your child doesn't follow these speech sound acquisition patterns, a referral to a Speech Language Pathologist may be appropriate to determine if your child has a speech sound delay or disorder and could potentially benefit from early intervention speech therapy services. Contact us for a free phone consultation if you’re concerned about your child’s speech intelligibility or their communication abilities at any age: Phone: 818-350-3107 or Email: info@sunnyspotspeech.com.
We provide private speech therapy for kids in home, online, at your child's preschool, daycare, private school, or at another community location throughout Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley. Locations include: Northridge, Calabasas, Granada Hills, Encino, Tarzana, Woodland Hills, Topanga, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Universal City, San Fernando, Valley Village, Burbank, Glendale.
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