Welcome back to the family chatterbox blog! My name is Kasey Wade and I am a certified pediatric speech and language pathologist! This blog post will help you understand some over arching guidelines and principles to use while helping your child develop and learn new sounds. Let’s get started!
Make all sounds with your tongue in your mouth
The only exception to this rule is “th”. If you see the tongue coming out of the mouth, you can ask for the sound to be repeated with the teeth closed! These sounds include: S, Z, SH, D, T, N, CH, J (as in Jump)
Make all sounds that are later acquired in development into age appropriate approximations
Turn loud “th” into “d”. For example, This = dis or That = dat
Turn quiet “th” into “f”. For example, Thumb = Fum or Three = Free
Turn “L” into “w”. For example, Lion = wion or Balloon = bawoon
Turn “L” at the end of words into “oh”. For example, Pool = poo-oh or Ball = ba-oh
Turn “R” into “w”. For example, Run = wun, Carry = cawee, or Four = fou-wa
When in doubt, focus on the vowels. For example, Marble = ma-bow, or Table = tay-bow
Turn blends into one sound. For example, Swim = wim, Snake = nake, or Twin = win
We don’t want our children to sound like toddlers forever, but sometimes making the appropriate adjustments in order to be understood as necessary before we can move on to producing more adult like speech.
Feeling unsure about how to help adapt your child’s speech into age-appropriate and sounds that would be understood by others? Send us a message, leave us an email, or give me a call! My cell phone is listed on all of our materials and website, I would love to hear from you!
-Kasey-