- By age 3
- A stranger understands most of it
- By age 4
- Nearly all understood
- Session
- 45 minutes
Some sounds simply arrive later
Children do not master every sound at once. Sounds that need fine tongue control — /r/, /s/, /l/ and consonant clusters — usually mature last, and it is still normal for them to be imperfect at four or five.
More useful than checking sound by sound is asking: how much does someone else understand? As a rough marker, by three most of what a child says should be understandable to someone who does not know them, and by four nearly all of it. Well below that is worth checking.
One thing that often gets missed: a child with frequent ear infections, or a long spell of fluid in the middle ear, can be late on particular sounds because they did not hear them clearly during the period that mattered. A hearing check is almost always the first step.
What happens in a session
We start by listening for the pattern in the errors, not counting wrong sounds. A child who replaces every back sound with a front one has a different pattern from a child who struggles with a single sound — and the two are handled differently.
The practice is staged: the sound alone, then in syllables, words, sentences, and finally ordinary conversation. Skipping a stage is the fastest way to end up with a child who says the sound correctly in the therapy room and reverts the moment they leave.
So there is always homework, and it is deliberately short — a few minutes daily is far more effective than one long session at the weekend.
Frequently asked questions
Is it enough to make my child repeat the word correctly?
Usually not, and it often makes a child less willing to talk. A more useful move is to say their sentence back in the correct form without an open correction — the child says "I wan dat", you answer "ah, you want that" and carry on. They hear the right form without feeling they failed.
My 3-year-old cannot say /r/. Do we need therapy?
Most likely not. /r/ is one of the last sounds to mature and it is still normal for it to be missing at that age. What matters more is how much of your child's speech overall is understood by others. If most of it is understood and only /r/ is missing, watching and waiting is usually enough.
How long does it usually take?
It depends on how many sounds are involved and how consistently the home practice happens. A single-sound error is often resolved in a matter of months; a whole pattern of errors takes longer. We set an observable target and reassess at intervals, so you never have to guess whether this is working.
Sources
The figures and recommendations on this page come from the sources below. The links go to third-party sites.
This page is educational and does not replace an examination by a doctor. If your child is unwell, or something does not feel right to you, have them seen first.