UNDERSTANDING SPEECH

A helpful rule regarding the development of articulation is the Rule of Fourths:

• The average 2-year-old child should be understood by strangers half the time (2/4)
• The average 3-year-old child should be understood ¾ of the time
• The average 4-year-old should be understood all the time (4/4).

Children may have difficulty with the pronunciation of certain sounds until they are 7 years of age, but 100% of speech should be understood by age 4 years. In normal speech development, the first eight consonant sounds that develop are m, b, y, n, w, d, p, and h. The last eight consonants are sh, th (as in thirty), s, z, th (as in the), zh sound typically spelled as s (as in pleasure), l, and r, which develop by age 7.