Speech Therapy f sound - how do we make it?
When it comes to making speech sounds, as with everything, all children develop at slightly different ages. However, thankfully, there are a set of guidelines to help us. Children are not born walking and talking, and then all of a sudden <BANG> they are little humans who can’t get enough of the chitter-chatter!
But...how does this happen?
They go through a set of ‘processes’. So, when it comes to specifically developing their ‘speech’ skills, which are needed in order to speak clearly and be understood by others, they typically go through various ‘speech development processes’. For example, most children will be able to say the ‘f’ sound (“ffff”) by the time they turn 3 years old. As with learning any new skill, they will struggle to make this ‘f’ sound for quite some time. It is much easier to say some easier sounds instead, e.g. ‘p’ or ‘b’. So, that’s what little kids do.
‘fish’ → “bish”
‘feet’ → “beet”
‘fan’ → “pan”
‘fat’ → “pat”
A little ‘punny’ sometimes…bless ‘em.
This is the normal process that all kids go through before mastering the ‘f’ sound. The fancy term for it is called ‘Stopping’. The child takes a long sound (ffffffffffffff) and stops it with a short, snappy sound like ‘p’ or ‘b’.
“My child is 4 and I’ve never heard him say the ‘f’ sound”
if your child is maybe 4 or 5 years old, and you have never heard them say the ‘f’ sound in any word, at any place in the word (beginning, middle or end), then maybe it’s time to chat to a Speech and Language Therapist.
The therapist will assess your child’s speech and be able to tell you if your child has normal developing speech, delayed speech (i.e. they are doing all the expected and normal ‘speech development processes’ but they are delayed) and/or signs of disordered speech (their speech is not following the normal processes and therefore is abnormal).
“My child is saying a ‘k’ sound instead of a ‘p’ or ‘b’”
This may be a sign of a speech disorder as opposed to speech delay. Children do not usually replace the ‘f’ sound with a ‘k’ sound when they are learning speech. Please seek an assessment from a Speech and Language Therapist without delay as it is unlikely that this issue will resolve on its own.
“What can I do to help?”
Imagine you were trying to make a new sound - if you’ve tried to learn a different language, like Welsh, then you may be familiar with just how tricky this can be. I’m willing to bet that in order to learn that sound, you will want to see someone make that sound in really short words as much as possible throughout the day (“can you say that again…slower please?”). You wouldn’t want them to be saying the sound over the phone, or facing away from you, where you can’t see their lips and tongue movement – only face-to-face, directly in front of you will do. Maybe we can keep this in mind when trying to help our little ones with these tricky new sounds.
If you would like some more advice, our Speech and Language Therapists are here to help! Please contact us or book a free 15 min chat today if you are concerned about your child’s speech. We can let you know if a speech assessment is necessary or not.
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