“My child is hard to understand. Their speech is unclear and sometimes I can’t understand what they are saying. What can I do?"

Model back words that are unclear. 

There should be no expectation for your child to repeat this back to you. Just providing the correct model is beneficial.

Play with your child face to face.

This encourages your child to see your face and mouth, which will aid speech sound development.

Reduce background noise. 

Where possible switch off the television and radio to reduce background noise which will help your child to hear the speech sounds you are modelling in your speech.

Encourage your child to communicate their message in other ways. 

Ask them to show you what they mean, ask them what is does/where you find it.  This shows your child what they have to say is important and valued.

Remember that speech sounds in children are always developing throughout the early years. 

Some speech sound errors will be normal for your child’s age.  Please see link to a chart which shows the typical developmental ages for the development of sounds.

https://www.dpcdsb.org/Documents/speechsounddevelopmentchart.pdf

If your child is having difficulty with vowel sounds, or their errors are inconsistent making them difficult for a familiar adult to understand, it is important you refer them to Speech and Language Therapy.

If you’re concerned, please visit your GP who will refer to your local NHS Speech Therapy Service and complete a referral on our home page if you’d like to be seen privately within 3 weeks.