By what age should kids be pronouncing all basic sounds correctly?

[loraxc]

My DD is 6 1/2 and still doesn't really make the "sh" sound. The "h" part is missing. Everyone understands her just fine 99% of the time, but the sound definitely isn't really there.

Her best friend, same age, does not make the "th" sound (he uses "d" or "f"--"dey got somefing") and one of her other friends does not say r's correctly. The only child who is a bit hard to understand is the one with the r issue, but he's only missing one sound too, you know?

Is this still okay at this age? At what point should children have all the sounds down? I looked it up but mostly found technical info. I don't think any of these kids' schools have concerns about their speech, but for various reasons to do with the schools this does not reassure me.

[LynnS6]

Age 8.

'sh' is particularly variable - mastery (i.e. 90% of children do it correctly) has been reported to vary between 5 and 7.

'th' is a later sound, with mastery typically reported between 7 and 8.

'r' is also variable, with mastery really varying, but somewhere between 5 1/2 and 8 has been reported.

These two documents are really helpful (though quite technical, and perhaps more information than you really need)

http://www.speech-language-therapy.c...LeodBleile.pdf
http://www.speech-language-therapy.c...peechnorms.pdf

ETA: If your daughter doesn't have this sound by age 8, then I'd have her assessed.

[loraxc]

Probably should have just PM'ed you! I was hoping you'd see this.

So sounds like they are all okay for now (although as I say, the kid who's losing r's can be hard to understand--I'd maybe get him assessed were I his mom, even though it's just this one letter). Thanks!

[One_Girl]

I think it depends on whether they have loose teeth or gaps where teeth are growing in. They do a language screening in my dd's first grade class and she came back not able to say some sounds that she should be able to say for her age, she also was missing two teeth, had one growing only half way in, had a bunch of mildly loose teeth, and another tooth that was almost all the way out. When you have to constantly adjust to loose teeth, growing teeth that are bigger than the old ones, and gaps in your mouth some sounds come out funny.

[Geofizz]

Lynn of course, knows all.

DS has been in speech therapy since he was about 3.5 years old. After saying they wouldn't address 'th' until closer to age 7, his SLP started to work on the 'th' a few months ago because he was unable to stay "thirteen" and "fourteen" distinctly enough to count accurately. Because the articulation was having a secondary effect, his SLP addressed it.

[LynnS6]

Originally Posted by loraxc

Probably should have just PM'ed you! I was hoping you'd see this.

So sounds like they are all okay for now (although as I say, the kid who's losing r's can be hard to understand--I'd maybe get him assessed were I his mom, even though it's just this one letter). Thanks!

Uh-oh, I've got a reputation!

If the child who's losing his r's is 'dropping' them at the beginning of words and not substituting another sound, so saying 'ed' instead of 'red' or 'wed', I'd be worried. If he's just omitting them after vowels, it's a different story and no so worrisome. But at this age, they really should be nearly 100% intelligible to people who hear them talk frequently. That's more what I'd go on if it were my child.

FWIW, our ds had s/sh issues too. I remember noticing them when he was reading out loud to me in 1st grade (maybe second?). But they resolved spontaneously. He's always been on the low end of typical for speech development (not language, speech. The SLPs do distinguish this.) His very early speech was really really hard to understand (except that mom was a linguist and could figure out all the rules he was doing. I was the only one who know that "gagaga" was garbage truck and "gashka" was garbage can. It does mean I have lots of lovely examples to use in class.)

[ramama]

Originally Posted by loraxc

Probably should have just PM'ed you! I was hoping you'd see this.

So sounds like they are all okay for now (although as I say, the kid who's losing r's can be hard to understand--I'd maybe get him assessed were I his mom, even though it's just this one letter). Thanks!

My 6 1/2 yo daughter doesn't have her "r"s down yet. It IS very hard to understand her. Especially since her name is Riley. If I had a quarter for everyone who thinks I named her after Wiley Coyote My DH in particular, who is hard of hearing, can barely understand her. "Cow" and "car" sound identical, as do "bird" and "board" and a whole slew of other words. Because it is so hard to understand her, I am going to have her evaluated as soon as she enters public school next month. It's good to know, though, that this isn't uncommon!

[kate42]

My DD (almost 7) lisps a little and is missing a whole bunch of front teeth. Hearing her try to say "chrysanthemum" is somewhat painful.