Speech Development: Typical Guidelines

Speech development is a very gradual process that begins in infancy and sometimes continues until the age of 7 or 8. Just like any other area of development, children develop speech abilities at different rates and ages too. I will provide here typical guidelines from infancy on up so that you can get an idea of where your child may be along this spectrum of development.

Newborn - 3 months: Sounds
Your newborn is very limited in making sounds because the oral structure and vocal cords are not well developed yet. Between 2 and 3 months your baby is much better able to control his sounds because he has better control of his vocal cords and oral muscles. Babies start to laugh during these months and start to make sounds in the back of their mouth like "goo" and "ga". They're beginning to recognize different voices, and also inflection and tone in your voice.

4-6 Months: Vocal Play
Now wih better control of their oral muscles they are making sounds that sound more like speech. Your baby is now experimenting an practicing with putting sounds together and making syllables. Your baby has also discovered other sounds that are not speech sounds such as squealing, yelling, and raspberry sounds.

6-11 Months: Babbling
Babbling is the repetition of syllables in sequence like "ba-ba-ba". Unfortunately at this age when your baby says "ma-ma" or "da-da" he is really babbling and typically not attaching meaning to these playful sounds. He is practicing his oral motor skills that he will later need for actual speech.

12-18 Months: First Words
Somewhere between these months your baby should begin to say real words. Also during this time babies experiment with strings of sounds made up of different syllable combinations and often these strings of sounds carry adult intonation patterns. Your baby may sound like he is really saying sentences but when you listen closely what you hear is mostly jibberish. This is also called jargon. You'll recognize a word as a word because there will be meaning attached to it.

18-36 Months: Rapid Speech Development
Babies develop speech sounds very rapidly during this time and because their oral structures are still not completely developed, they often simplify the pronunciation of words that they try to say. Some typical simplifications include leaving off word endings ("bed" becomes "be"), simplifying consonant blends ("spoon" becomes "poon"), dropping a syllable ("telephone" becomes "tephon"), producing sounds in the front of the mouth that should be produced in the back of the mouth ('cat" becomes "dat" or "tat"), and sustituting an easier sound for a more difficult one ("rain" becomes "wain").

If your child is making any of these simplifications between 18 months and 3 years old, please know that it is perfectly normal. If, however, your child is still making some of these simplifications at four or five, I encourage you to take him for a speech and language evaluation.

During these months most babies are producing most vowel sounds correclty. The progression of consonants is typically as follows: b,m,p and h are usually the first sounds a baby will start using.  The next set of sounds to come in are typically f, w, t, n, d, k, g, and ng. The 's' sound may appear early on, but often doesnt' sound really clear for a few years as this sound typically develops gradually.

3-4 Years: More Difficult Sounds
Between these years the remaining and more difficult sounds are usually learned, including l, r, sh, ch, dg, th y, v, and z. It is often the case that although these sounds are acquired between 3-4 years of age, they are usually not mastered for a few years after that - maybe even as late as 7 or 8.

I hope this has been helpful in providing you with some guidelines for your child's speech development. So if your child is two or three or even four and not saying the 's' sound or the 'th' sound correctly, this is normal. But please also know that you don't have to wait for these later ages to see if your child can make these sounds correctly if only they were shown how! Sometimes all it takes is to show them a few times (actually get down on their level and show them your mouth making that sound) and with that they may be able to imitate what you are doing.

- Tami