By the time your child reaches this age, they will need clear speech to help them speak confidently in front of others, to make their ideas and beliefs understood, and to help them develop early reading and writing skills.
Children with significant speech sound difficulties are at greater risk of developing reading and writing difficulties in the early school years. Speech sound difficulties can be caused by a variety of factors, such as slow or disordered development of sounds, low tone or strength in the muscles responsible for speech, difficulties coordinating the muscles and movements for speech and so on.
What you need to know
It takes around 8 years for children to master all the speech sounds in the English language. With only 26 letters in the English alphabet, children have to learn 42 different sounds!! Many of these are vowel sounds e.g. ay, ee, oo, or, er, and so on which are typically mastered without any intervention and at a fairly early age around 3 years. The chatter of many 2-3 year olds can be difficult to understand at times, especially to unfamiliar people, but by the time a child reaches 3-4 years of age, they are usually easy to understand almost all of the time.
