Speech Clarity
Is it normal for my kid to be hard to understand?
It’s common for parents to worry about their child’s speech clarity, especially if they notice other children of the same age seem easier to understand. Here are some general guidelines to consider:
By age 2: Children’s speech may still be fairly unclear, but parents and familiar caregivers typically understand about 50% of what the child says. At this age, toddlers are still learning to put words together, so single words or short phrases might dominate their speech.
By age 3: Speech becomes clearer, and parents, as well as unfamiliar listeners, can understand about 75% of what the child says. They should be putting together 3-4 word sentences and may still have trouble with certain sounds (like "r," "l," or "s") or with multisyllabic words.
By age 4-5: Children are generally 90-100% intelligible to most listeners, although they may still make occasional errors with certain sounds or complex words. Their sentences are also becoming more complex, often including correct grammar and basic storytelling ability.
If a child continues to be difficult to understand past these typical age ranges, or if they are noticeably less intelligible than their peers, it could be a sign of a speech sound disorder.
