Try At Home: Speech Strategies

Jen Wong
Jan 18, 2024
2 min read

As your child grows older, their words and speech will become clearer and better understood. At 4 years old, your child should be intelligible to most people. If English is their first language, they should be able to say all the sounds in the English language by 7-8 years old (school-aged).

You may also notice your young child stuttering. This is not uncommon during their pre-school years and may increase when they are over-excited or nervous. This often resolves by the time they start primary school. If your child has a severe stutter (impacting their intelligibility) or their stutter persist into later pre-school years, it is recommended you seek support from a speech pathologist.

Early Development and General Strategies

As your child continues to develop their speech sounds, consider the following:

Avoid making negative comments about your child's speech as this can often lead to significant impacts and may worsen their symptoms.
- Avoid telling your child to "speak properly" or "just breathe."
- These comments can be detrimental to your child's self-esteem and may impact their confidence in speaking at all.
If your child makes a speech error, simply model the correct sounds with emphasis, for example:
- Child: "I wike cake"
- Adult: "oh, you like cake?"
Avoid copying the sounds that your child makes and always use the correct speech sounds, for example:
- Child: "it's a sheashell!"
- Adult: "yes, a seashell!"
If your child is struggling with a certain sound, you might play games to engage in making and practicing those sounds, e.g. if your child is developing their "R" sounds, you might play a game pretending to be bears, "the bear goes grrrrrrr"
You might acknowledge their error through occasionally requesting for clarification:
- Child: "I have a do_"
- Adult: "oh, do you mean doll?"

If your child is highly unintelligible and is having significant trouble making or learning certain sounds, there may be an underlying difficulty. If this is the case, or if your child shows significant stuttering that is affecting their confidence and social participation, a speech pathologist can provide assessment to determine the best strategy to use.