My child is hard to understand! Help!
It is always exciting when children start talking and FINALLY have another channel of communication! However, parents often tell us that their child is hard to understand, or their child is saying sounds for a word, but not the whole word. For example, they may say, “ba” for bottle or “wawa” for water. Is this normal? It may be, depending on their age. For new talkers and toddlers, it is completely age-appropriate to be simplifying words, which may make it more difficult to understand what they are saying.
Sound Development
New talkers, such as toddlers and babies, typically have developed only a limited set of consonant sounds, such as p, b, m, n, d, t, w, h, d, g, and y. Don’t worry if they do not have ALL of these sounds, since many may not develop until after age two! As they get older, new sounds continually emerge and will contribute to how well others can understand them. Until then, how well we understand our child may be limited by how many sounds they are able to say!
Phonological Processes
Toddlers often make speech errors that are referred to as phonological processes. They do this because it is too overwhelming for them to make all the sounds that adults make, so their brains simplify the speech and language patterns to make it easier for them to talk! For example, little ones may leave off the end of words (“mo” for more), use less syllables in a word (“nana” for banana), or simplify consonant clusters (“pot” for spot). You also may notice your toddler substituting sounds, such as /t/ for /k/ and /d/ for /g/ (“gog” for dog). Errors like these are pretty common in new talkers and are normal for little ones under the age of three.
How much of my child’s speech should I understand?
When we put together the limited number of sounds toddlers have developed, along with their simplified speech and language patterns, it makes sense that toddlers can be somewhat difficult to understand. This may especially be true for someone not familiar or often around your child.
With a new talker (approx. 18 months old), it is typical for others to only understand about 25% percent of what your toddler is saying. As children develop more sounds and learn to process new language patterns, we expect them to become easier to understand. By age four or five, we should be able to understand everything a child is saying.
My child gets so frustrated when I don’t know what they’re saying. What can I do to help?
As babies and toddlers begin talking, it can be very exciting and also frustrating at the same time (for them and us)! Has your child every tried to tell you something and you have no idea what they are saying?! We’ve been there, too!
Here are some strategies that might be helpful when your little one is difficult to understand:
Teach your child baby sign language! Baby sign is a GREAT way to help your little one communicate with you. It also encourages spoken language, too!
Ask your child to point to what they are talking about or to show you!
Look around for clues to see what they may be talking about.
Give your child choices! It can be easier for a child to successfully express an idea if they have a small selection to choose from.
When you do know what your child wants to say, always provide a positive response for their “good talking” and repeat the word back to them the right way!
Talking should be a positive experience for your child, so even when they are most frustrated, we want them to feel good about using their words to express themselves!
My child is getting older and is still really hard to understand! Now what?
Once children get past the age of three, we should be understanding a majority of what they are saying (at least 75%). If you are finding that your child is still pretty difficult to understand, it is possible that they could have a speech or language disorder that would require intervention. Don’t panic! Children that receive intervention early are often able to make tremendous progress and catch up to their peers. If you have a concern, always discuss them with your pediatrician and reach out to a speech-language pathologist for more guidance. Children over the age of three may be able to receive an evaluation and therapy through your local school district, so that is always a great place to start.
References:
Bowen, C. (2011). Table 1: Intelligibility. Retrieved from http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/ on July 2020.
Mcleod, Sharynne, and Kathryn Crowe. “Children's Consonant Acquisition in 27 Languages: A Cross-Linguistic Review.” American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, vol. 27, no. 4, 2018, pp. 1546–1571., doi:10.1044/2018_ajslp-17-0100.
Phonological Processing, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, www.asha.org/Practice-Portal/Clinical-Topics/Written-Language-Disorders/Phonological-Processing/ on July 2020.
