Speech Impediments

Every kiddo has interesting quirks when pronouncing certain words or sounds. Over time, as kids get better mastery of their tongue and mouth muscles, those quirks will most likely go away on their own the more they learn new words. Also as kids get older and try to communicate with adults and other kids who are not used to their interesting pronunciations they will alter their word sounds accordingly to be better understood. As a pediatrician, I do need to monitor how clear a kiddo’s speech is to help make sure we are on the right track for entering elementary school. At various ages, I expect to understand a kiddo (without their parent’s help in translating) a certain percentage of the time:

By age 1, as kiddos start saying words, I expect to understand 12.5-25% of the words they are saying. 

By age 2, I expect to understand 25-50% of what they are saying. 

By age 3, I would like to understand 50-75% of what they are saying.

By age 4, I would expect to know what they are talking about 75-100% of the time. 

Why the big ranges of understandability? Well, because a newly minted 4-year-old is not going speak as well as a kiddo who is 1 month away from their 5th birthday. 

If your pediatrician does not think your kiddo is on track to meet these percentages, they may recommend extra word and speech help with a speech therapist. Depending on their age, these sessions can be focused either on parents (teaching them tools and games to play at home to help get the mouth and tongue moving better) or doing more focused 1-on-1 practice with an older kiddo who can sit for 30 minutes and fully engage in exercises.