Speech and Language

Speech Sounds Toolkit

Most children’s speech sound development follows a typical pattern. It is normal for children to replace or omit some sounds, for example, 'tar' for 'car' or 'poon' for 'spoon’. These errors usually resolve as the child matures.

However, some children’s speech sounds may develop more slowly or in an unusual way, such as saying ‘har’ for ‘car’ or ‘oo’ for ‘spoon’, or ‘ay-ee’ for ‘baby’. If these errors persist they may need some extra help to develop their speech sounds. 

What Difficulties May Look Like:

  • A child may have difficulty producing specific speech sounds, for example saying ‘t’ instead of ‘k’
  • They may replace or miss off sounds within words, like saying ‘tea’ instead of ‘key’ or ‘bu’ instead of ‘bus’
  • The child may have poor phonological awareness skills.

Impact Of Difficulties:

  • People may struggle to understand what the child is saying
  • Children may become frustrated or angry
  • They may have a lack of confidence in speaking
  • There may be a risk of reading, spelling and writing difficulties in the future.

Universal Strategies

  • React to what the child says, not how they say it.
  • Repeat back what you do understand. For example, the child says: "Look tar", you say: "Yes a fast car". This way you don't draw attention to their mistake and make them feel bad for getting the wrong sound. Instead, you just simply let them hear it said correctly, this is known as modelling.
  • Do not place any pressure on the child to copy you.
  • If you are finding it difficult to understand, you could take on the blame by saying: "My ears aren’t working today… can you show me?".
  • Ask questions that help give clues about what the child is saying, such as: "Who are you telling me about?’ or "Where did it happen?".

Find information about teaching toddlers speech sounds here

Speech Sound Development

Targeted Interventions

Phonological awareness, also known as speech sound awareness, is an essential part of speech sound development, reading and spelling. Phonological awareness is the ability to identify the sound components of words such as syllables or rhyme and identify beginning and end sounds of words.

  • Identify environmental noises like plane vs bird
  • Copy a rhythm or beat through dance, instruments or singing
  • Develop an awareness of rhyme through change to nursery rhymes, action rhymes and rhyming books
  • Clap out the syllables in words, for example, 'spi-der' is two claps, 'to-ma-to' is three claps.

Who Can Help?

You can access Speech and Language support by calling Just One Number on 0300 300 0123. Our opening hours are 8am-6pm Monday-Friday (excluding bank holidays).

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