When Should Children be able to Say Certain Sounds? (And How Can We Help?

One of the top questions I get is about whether or not a child should be saying certain speech sounds.

Let me tell you, there is a WIDE range of normal when it comes to speech sound acquisition.

But in general, we know that certain sounds (like /b/ and /m/) come in early…

…and other sounds (like /r/ and /l/) come in later.

And knowing those milestones can help us decide which children need speech therapy, and which can wait it out.

I'm speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark and in today's episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I'll be telling you what ages certain sounds should come in by and I'll be giving you a Therapy Roadmap for how to help them if they're not.

Listen to the Podcast Here

You can listen to the full podcast episode below:

Ages for Speech Sounds:

But before we get to the roadmap, let's answer the question that everyone is asking:

When should children be able to say each speech sound?

I've got it all laid out for you right here:

Speech Sounds By Age:

The following sound chart represent the age of acquisition for the English speech sounds.  The age below indicates that 90% of children are saying this sound consistently when they turn that age.  For example, for the /b/ sound, 90% of children are able to produce the /b/ sound correctly in everyday speech by their third birthday.

Click here to view the research behind this speech sound age chart.

/b/ Sound…………………….3 years

/n/ Sound…………………….3 years

/m/ Sound……………………3 years

/p/ Sound…………………….3 years

/h/ Sound……………………3 years

/w/ Sound…………………….3 years

/d/ Sound……………………..3 years

/g/ Sound (as in "go")…….4 years

/k/ Sound………………………..4 years

/f/ Sound………………………….4 years

/t/ Sound………………………….4 years

"ng" Sound (as in, "ring")……4 years

"y" Sound (as in, "yum")……..4 years

/v/ Sound………………………….5 years

"j" Sound (as in, "jam")……….5 years

/s/ Sound………………………….5 years

"ch" Sound…………………………..5 years

/l/ Sound…………………………….5 years

"sh" Sound…………………………..5 years

/z/ Sound …………………………..5 years

/r/ Sound……………………………6 years

Voiced "th" ("they")……………..6 years

Soft "j" ("beige")………………….6 years

Voiceless "th" ("thumb")……….7 years

* Keep in mind, most state education departments have their own chart of when children in the public schools qualify for services based on sound.  These ages may be different than the research presented here.

But there is a Wide Range of Normal!

Ok wait!

Before you post a comment telling me I'm wrong….

There is a wide range of "normal".

Many children acquire these sounds earlier or even later than these ages!

Different research studies put these ages at different levels.

This was a study done in 2020 but other studies have reported different findings.

That's because all children acquire sounds differently.

How to Tell if the Child Needs Speech Therapy:

Instead of getting hung up on the details…

….look for patterns.

Is the child missing MANY of these sounds?

Then there may be a problem.

If the child is only slightly behind these ages, then we may not need to worry too much.

A speech-language pathologist can do a full evaluation to see if there are enough red flags for us to feel that therapy is warranted.

Therapy Roadmap for Speech Sound Therapy: