Super Star Speech

Some speech sounds are very similar.  Two different sounds may be produced with the exact same tongue movement. They may be explosive, short sounds, like t, k, and p. Or they may be stretched out “sibilant” sounds like s or f.  When a speech pathologist (SLP) evaluates a child’s articulation, not only does he or she listen to and evaluate every speech sound, but the SLP will analyze the errors for patterns of mispronunciation. This will often help him or her devise the best and most efficient therapy plan.

Sounds that differ from each other by only one feature are referred to by speech pathologists as “minimal pairs.”  The most common minimal pairs used in speech therapy are the voiced/unvoiced sound pairs. Speech sounds can be produced with the voice on (all vowels, /r/, /l/, /z/, etc.) or with the voice off (/s/, /t/, /k/, etc.).  There are many English sounds that are actually almost identical to another sound in their production. The only difference is whether the voice is “turned on” or “turned off.”

Say, “sssssss.”  You didn’t use your voice, did you? Now say, “ssssss” and turn on your voice. The /s/ just turned into a /z/!  The placement of the tongue and the manner of articulation is identical for the two sounds. Only the voicing is different. This is something that never occurred to me until I was taking courses in speech pathology, so I thought it might be new information for my reader, too!

These are the minimal pairs that differ only in voicing.

p, b

t, d

k, g

s,z,

ch, j

th (thin), th (that)

f, v

When a child is in speech therapy, the voiced/unvoiced pairs will usually be taught at the same time. It is very common, for example, for a child to work on  the /s/ and /z/ sounds together. Practicing one of these sounds will reinforce the other.  At other times, the speech pathologist will choose to focus on sounds that have a different common feature, such as voiced sounds or tongue-tip sounds. Alternatively, the SLP may choose several sounds that have no common features–this procedure has been shown to encourage the acquisition of many sounds that aren’t even addressed!

Ask any speech pathologist this question and you will probably get the same answer–/r/, /s/, and /z/!  These sounds are tough for many children and are often not mastered until 5, 6, or 7 years old. There are many other common errors as well. Children tend to make the same types of errors on each of these sounds.  Here is a list of common speech sound errors:

/k/ and /g/…………These sounds are usually mastered by age 4, but some children substitute /t/ for /k/ and /d/ for /g/.

/th/…………………./f/ and /d/ are commonly substituted for the /th/ sound.

/s/ and /z/ ………./th/  is typically substituted for these sounds. Other children distort /s/ and /z/ by allowing the airflow to come around the sides of the tongue instead of channeling it over the top of the tongue, resulting in a slushy-sounding /s/ or /z/.

/r/…………………../w/ is most commonly substituted for the /r/ sound. Sometimes /r/ is omitted, especially at the ends of words.

/ch/………………../t/ or /sh/ may be substituted for /ch/ or the /ch/ may be distorted.

/j/…………………. /d/ may be substituted for /j/ or the /j/ may be distorted.

/sh/………………../t/ or /s/ may be substituted for /sh/ or the /sh/ may be distorted.

-F and V…………../b/ is often substituted for /v/.  /p/ may be substituted for /f/.

-/l/…………………./w/ and /y/ are the sounds typically substituted for /l/.  /l/ is usually omitted at the end of the word.

The more errors a child has, the more difficult he will be to understand. Likewise, the more severe the child’s errors are, the more his intelligibility will be affected. For example, omitting consonants is a more severe problem than simply distorting the correct sound.

Although, as I have said before, children do develop at different rates and sequences, some sounds are easier to produce and are usually mastered at earlier ages. The sounds labial (lip) sounds, p, b, and m, are probably the easiest. N, t, and d are also easy sounds that most children master very early. Think of a child’s first words….mama, dada, ball (without the “l”). Other early words often have these sounds substituted for more difficult sounds: “tat” for “cat,” or “du” for “juice.”

By age 3, most children have mastered m, p, b, and n.  By 3 1/2, they are also correctly producing t, d, k, g, w, y, and ng in their speech. To see more detailed information on speech and language development at various ages, visit these links:

Articulation Sounds Chart

Speech and Language Development Chart

In their first year, well before they say their first real words, babies babble many different sounds  as they experiment with their voices. Supposedly, babies actually produce and experiment with ALL of the sounds, including those not in their native languages. As they mature, immersed in their native language, they start limiting themselves to only the sounds that they hear and eventually lose the ability to even hear many sounds in other languages. When I was visiting in Korea, I would try to imitate a word, to be told repeatedly, “No!”  And they would say the word again. I thought was repeating the word I was hearing! Apparently not! You are probably aware that Asians often confuse the sounds “l” and “r.” That sound is the same in their languages and they actually cannot hear the difference.

This is why, if you want your child to speak fluently and without an accent in a second language, he must be exposed to it very young in life.