Skip to Main Content Skip to Site Map Skip to Accessibility Statement
Home Our Services Children and Young People Paediatric Speech and Language Therapy Speech Sound Disorder (Unclear Speech)

Speech Sound Disorder (Unclear Speech)

Picture of a child reading an orange book showing the letter E

Why do children struggle with pronouncing words?

Find the answers to this and other common questions here https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people/speech-sound-phonic-development/z3ybg7h

 

Children learn to say various sounds at different stages.

Find out at what age different speech sounds may develop here.

When practising speech sounds with your child at home the most important thing is to make it fun.

Here are some ideas of games which may help motivate your child to practise.

There are lots of reasons your child may not be able to say certain sounds; a common one is having lots of ear infections and colds. If you think this is happening with your child you can look at these factsheets on Glue Ear

Dummies and Speech Sound Development

https://speechandlanguage.org.uk/talking-point/parents/do-dummies-affect-speech/

Early Sound Awareness (Phonological Awareness) is the understanding that spoken words are made up of sounds and recognising how they come together to form words.

Developing good sound awareness can help children develop clearer speech and is also important when learning to read and spell. Early years practitioner Jamel Campbell explains what early sound awareness is and shares his top tips to support it https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people/what-is-phonological-awareness/znrk8hv can we have an image of the video/page to click on?

As children approach pre-school age, they will begin to build their understanding of the different sounds that make up words and be able to spot similarities and differences between words.

This video focuses on developing rhyme in early sound awareness https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people/speech-lab-rhyming/zf94r2p

As your child approaches the start of primary school, you can play games that help with their understanding of word sounds.

As well as helping to develop clear speech this will get them ready for learning to read. Playing games such as I-Spy, so they can think about the different sounds at the start of words for the things around them https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people/tools-for-talking-4-5-years/z3bmqfr

Useful links:

Also in this Section