Speech & Language

Speech Sounds

Most children's speech sound development follows a typical pattern. It is normal for children to replace some of the more difficult sounds with sounds which are easier to say (e.g. saying 'tar' for 'car' or 'poon' for 'spoon').

However, some children's speech sounds may develop more slowly or in an unusual way (e.g. saying ‘har’ for ‘car’ or ‘oo’ for ‘spoon’, or ‘ay-ee’ for ‘baby’). These children may need extra help to develop their speech sounds.

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 syllables in words, identify and generate rhyming words, identify individual sounds in words, blend sounds to make words.

What Difficulties May Look Like:

  • May have difficulty producing specific speech sounds (e.g. saying ‘t’ instead of ‘k’)
  • May replace or miss off sounds within words (e.g. saying ‘tea’ instead of ‘key’ or ‘bu’ instead of ‘bus’)
  • May have poor phonological awareness skills.

Impact Of Difficulties:

  • Other people may struggle to understand what the child is saying
  • May become frustrated when unable to get their message across
  • May have difficulty with phonics (e.g. unable to tell the difference between sounds)
  • May be at a higher risk of reading, spelling and writing difficulties
  • May have difficulty learning new vocabulary.

Universal Strategies

  • React to what the pupil says, not how they say it.
  • Repeat back what the pupil has said, using the correct sounds.
  • Do not place any pressure on the pupil 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?’
  • It may help to ask questions that help give you clues about what the child is saying. For example ‘who are you telling me about?’ or ‘where did it happen?’.

Targeted Interventions

Targeted support may focus on developing a child's phonological awareness skills, which are fundamental to speech sound and literacy development.

Aims of targeted interventions may include:

  • For the child to clap the syllables in a range of words e.g. spi-der = 2 claps’ to-ma-to = 3 claps
  • For the child to hear the difference between two contrasting sounds when an adult says them e.g. ‘k’ – ‘m’
  • For the child to identify the sound at the beginning of a word when the adult says the word, from a choice of 2 or 3 sounds.

Who Can Help?

Please refer the child for assessment if:

  • Child's speech is very difficult to understand to unfamiliar person
  • Child uses a very limited number of sounds e.g replaces or omits many sounds not typical for their age
  • Child makes a lot of vowel errors or makes non English sounds
  • Child’s speech has a distinctive nasal quality
  • Child is making very little progress.

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).

Also in this section...

Need More Information

Other Useful Pages

Helping Children With Unclear Speech

Phonological Awareness (Speech Sound Awareness)

Stage 1 - Auditory Discrimination

Stage 2 - Practising Single Sounds

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