What Sound Is Your Child Mispronouncing?

Does your child have speech sound errors, but you’re not sure which ones?  I'll give you some examples to help you figure it out.   Does your child have speech sound errors, but you’re not sure which ones?  Let me give you some examples to help you figure it out.  I’ll start with some of the more common ones. L and Initial R – These are often mispronounced with a ‘W’ sound, like  ‘wabbit’ for ‘rabbit’, or ‘wike’ for ‘like’.  “I see a wabbit!  I wike it!” S and Z – These are often mispronounced with a lisp.  It could sound like a TH, SH or ZH, as in “thoup” for “soup”, “shun” for “sun”, or “zhebra” for “zebra”.  “Can I have some thoup?”   “The shun is bright today.”  “Where are my glashezh?” TH – This might be pronounced as an F or a D.  A child might say ‘free’ for ‘three’, or ‘duh’ for ‘the’.  “Duh dog has free puppies.” Vocalic R – This is the R that is connected to a vowel sound, like the ER at the end of ‘teacher’.  Vocalic R errors can range from a mild accent to a definite distortion that can make a third grader sound like he’s talking baby-talk.  A child might say “dowa” for “door”, or “teachoh” for “teacher.”  There’s a wide range of distorted sounds for this one.  “My teachoh is nice. She’s at the dowa.” SH, CH, & J – These sounds will often be substituted with T or D.  Sometimes the SH might be said with an S instead.  For example, “shoe” might be pronounced “sue” or “too”.  “Watch” might be pronounced “wat”, and “pajamas” might be pronounced “padamas”.   “I take off my sues and put on my padamas.” P & B – These sounds might be deleted altogether, as in “maw” for “mop”, or “ee” for “bee”.  Because these are some of the easier sounds to produce, these errors would most likely occur in very young children or those with co-occurring developmental or health issues.  G & K – These sounds might be mispronounced as D or T.  For example, “dog” might be pronounced “dod”, or “cat” might be pronounced “tat”.  “I see a dod and a tat.” F & V – These might be pronounced as P or B, as in “pun” for “fun” and “ban” for “van”.   “It’s pun to go in the ban!”  I hope this helps you decide what sounds your child might be producing in error.  Thanks and have a nice day!