Age for Speech Sounds

I've had several parents wondering what age that their child should have certain sounds. Here is a general chart demonstrating the age range that of 90% children master the sounds by! 

*Smit (1990), Shriberg (1993) and Grunwell (1997)

Keep it simple

During my time serving on our district's Child Find team, I had the joy of "experimenting" with  variety of therapy techniques and tools.

One of the greatest things I picked up on while working with so many disabilities and individualism was to  teach children language the way that we naturally learn language. Seems simple; just like Rosetta Stone...right? *note the sarcasm

Children always learn best in their natural environment with engaging toys and activities. If you've ever tried to sit down with a one year old and practice flashcards with the goal of them sitting with an attention span of a three year old; than you can picture how a three year old with a developmental level of a one year old would responds to this same task.

The point is, we must always keep in mind where the child is it in their development and shift our therapy/play to their level.

Multiple research studies have proven that therapy tasks that don't account for developmental learning are useless. Practices including non-speech oral motor exercises, weighted vests, auditory integration therapy, and other developmentally inadequate approaches.

Follow the child's lead. If the want to play cars, play cars. If they want to rock a baby, rock a baby and shower that child with pretend play, natural language, and engaging therapy.


SarahV