My Child Is Hard to Understand: When Should I Seek Help?
It is very common for young children’s speech to be unclear while they are learning to talk. Producing speech involves learning how to coordinate lots of different sounds, and some are much more difficult to say than others.
However, there can come a point when parents start to wonder whether their child is harder to understand than other children of a similar age.
Perhaps you understand almost everything they say, but grandparents, nursery staff or other children regularly struggle. Your child might leave sounds out of words, replace one sound with another or become frustrated when somebody cannot work out what they mean.
If this sounds familiar, it can be helpful to understand a little more about speech sound development and when it may be worth asking a children’s speech therapist for advice.
Why is my child’s speech unclear?
Children do not learn all their speech sounds at once.
While their speech is developing, they may simplify words in different ways. They might leave sounds out, swap a difficult sound for one that is easier to produce or pronounce the same word differently from an adult.
Some of this is a completely expected part of learning to talk.
For other children, speech remains much harder to understand than expected, progress with speech sounds may slow down, or they may use unusual patterns of sounds.
Speech and Language Therapists use the term “speech sound difficulties” or “speech sound disorders” to describe a range of difficulties that can affect how clearly a child speaks.
You may also come across terms such as “speech impediment” when looking for information online. This is a broad, non-specific term; a Speech and Language Therapist will look much more closely at exactly which aspects of speech a child is finding difficult.
I can understand my child, but nobody else can
This is something parents tell Speech and Language Therapists frequently.
People who spend a lot of time with a child become very good at understanding their speech. You know what they are likely to be talking about, you recognise their individual pronunciation patterns and you have the context of what has just happened.
Someone who does not know your child as well does not have all those clues.
It can therefore be useful to notice not only how well you understand your child, but how successfully they can communicate with less familiar people.
If nursery or school staff, extended family or other children regularly find it difficult to understand what your child is saying, this may be worth discussing with a Speech and Language Therapist, particularly if they are over the age of 3 years.
What are some signs that it might be time to seek help?
There is no single rule that applies to every child. Speech sound development needs to be considered alongside a child’s age, their individual pattern of development and the type of speech errors they are making.
It may be useful to seek advice if:
your child is very difficult to understand, even for familiar adults
their speech does not seem to be becoming clearer over time
they use a relatively small range of speech sounds
they regularly leave sounds out of words or replace several different sounds with the same sound
their speech errors seem unusual or unpredictable
they become upset or frustrated when people cannot understand them
they are beginning to avoid talking because they are worried about being understood
nursery or school staff have raised concerns about the clarity of their speech.
If you are concerned about more than speech clarity – for example, your child is also finding it difficult to understand language, learn new words or make sentences – you may find Speech Delay or Language Delay: What’s the Difference? helpful.
Should I correct my child when they say a word incorrectly?
Usually, repeatedly asking a child to say a word again is not the most helpful approach.
Instead, you can model the word correctly as part of your natural response.
For example, if your child says:
“Look at the tat!”
You might respond:
“Yes, it’s a big cat!”
They hear a clear model of the word without feeling that they have got something wrong or need to perform it correctly.
The most important thing in everyday conversation is your child’s message. Show them that you are interested in what they are telling you rather than focusing every conversation on how accurately they have produced the sounds.
If you genuinely cannot understand, encourage them to show you, point, gesture or give you another clue. This can help reduce frustration while keeping the conversation going.
What happens in speech therapy for children with unclear speech?
Before deciding what sort of therapy might help, a Speech and Language Therapist needs to understand why the child’s speech is unclear.
An assessment can look at which sounds your child can produce, the patterns they use when saying words and whether their difficulties are related to articulation, phonology or another type of speech sound difficulty.
This matters because different difficulties need different approaches.
For some children, advice and activities at home may be enough. Other children may benefit from regular paediatric speech therapy sessions with carefully chosen goals and activities.
At All Join In, therapy is tailored to the individual child, and parents or education staff can learn how to repeat appropriate activities between sessions.
What if I’m not sure whether my child needs speech therapy?
You do not need to diagnose the problem yourself before asking for advice.
In fact, this is one of the reasons an assessment can be useful. It can help distinguish between speech patterns that are still part of a child’s development and difficulties where additional support may be helpful.
If your concern is broader than speech clarity, you can also read When Should a Child See a Speech and Language Therapist?, which looks at some of the different reasons families may seek support.
Looking for help with unclear speech in Bristol?
All Join In provides speech and language therapy for children with speech sound difficulties in Bristol and the surrounding areas.
Anna and her associates work with toddlers, preschool and primary school children, with assessment and therapy available at home, school or nursery depending on the child’s needs.
If your child is difficult to understand, has unclear speech or is finding particular speech sounds tricky, an assessment can help identify what is happening and whether support would be useful.
You can find out more about children’s speech and language therapy in Bristol or get in touch with All Join In to discuss your concerns.
