Typical Speech Sound Development in Children
The following is a list of sounds the age at which 75% of Australian children produced the sounds correctly in single words (Kilminster & Laird, 1978).
| Age | Sound | Examples | ||
| Initial word Position | Middle word Position | Final word position | ||
| 2 years | m n h | mine no hair | hammer honey | arm man |
| 2 ½ years | p b ng w d g | pear big
walk dog go | happy baby finger flower ladder tiger | cup club ring
mud egg |
| 3 years | y k t | yes car tire | yoyo water | boy look cat |
| 3 years 6 months | f | fun
| wafer | puff |
| 4 years | l ch sh | lizard chair ship | yellow kitchen pushing | ball catch fish |
| 4 years 6 months | j s zh z | jump soap
zebra | soldier racing measure scissors | bridge grass beige nose |
| 5 years | r | rabbit | orange | |
| 6 years | v | van | seven | stove |
| 8 years | th (voiced) | this | brother | with |
| 8 years 6 months | th (voiceless) | thumb | nothing | mouth |
Consonant blends (fl, gr, pl,pr,gr,gl, st etc) develop after the individual sounds are established. For example: ‘s’ blends should be correct by 4 ½ to 5 years (Grunwell, 1982).
