Speech, language and communication
Giving children the best possible start in life
2
Years
- Use a limited number of sounds in their words – often these are p, b, d, m, n
- Speech may not be clear
- Children will also often miss the ends off words at this stage.
- Children tend to substitute sounds for those that are easier to say e.g. car becomes tar, sun becomes tun etc.
3
Years
- Speech is becoming clearer
- A range of new sounds are emerging- f, k, g, t, w
- Many children will shorten longer words, such as saying ‘nana’ instead of ‘banana
- Sound substitutions are still evident especially with sounds such as sh, ch, j, l, r, th.
- They may also have difficulty where lots of sounds happen together in a word, e.g. they may say ‘pider’ instead of 'spider.'
4
Years
- Speech is becoming clearer and mostly intelligible
- Most sounds are in use, new sounds emerging are ch, j, sh, v, l, z
- Many children will shorten longer words, such as saying ‘nana’ instead of ‘banana’
- Some sound substitutions are still evident especially with sounds such as th and r.
- They may also have difficulty where lots of sounds happen together in a word, e.g. they may say ‘pider’ instead of 'spider.'
5
Years
- Uses most sounds effectively
- Speech is intelligible
- Complicated words may still be difficult to produce
- May find r and th difficult to produce up until around 6 years old