Language is different from speech.

Language is made up of socially shared rules that include the following:

• What words mean (e.g., "star" can refer to a bright object in the night sky or a celebrity)
• How to make new words (e.g., friend, friendly, unfriendly)
• How to put words together (e.g., "Peg walked to the new store" rather than "Peg walk store new")
• What word combinations are best in what situations ("Would you mind moving your foot?" could quickly change to "Get off my foot, please!" if the first request did not produce results)

Speech is the verbal means of communicating. Speech consists of the following:

Articulation

How speech sounds are made (e.g., children must learn how to produce the "r" sound in order to say "rabbit" instead of "wabbit").

Voice

Use of the vocal folds and breathing to produce sound (e.g., the voice can be abused from overuse or misuse and can lead to hoarseness or loss of voice).

Fluency

The rhythm of speech (e.g., hesitations or stuttering can affect fluency).

When a person has trouble understanding others (receptive language), or sharing thoughts, ideas, and feelings completely (expressive language), then he or she has a language disorder.

When a person is unable to produce speech sounds correctly or fluently, or has problems with his or her voice, then he or she has a speech disorder.

-ASHA (American Speech-Language Hearing Association)

The Development of Speech Sounds in Children

 This list shows at what age 90 percent of boys and girls can articulate the English consonants correctly (probably in all positions).  Vowels are correctly produced by the age of three.  All children do not develop at the same time and in the same way, so we cannot expect correct speech from every child in the primary grades.

Age 3:  p, b, m, h, w, n
Age 4:  d, t, k, g, y, f
Age 5:  l, ng
Age 6: sh, ch, v
Age 7:  s, z, th (voiced), th (unvoiced), j
Age 8: r, zh

* Adapted from Sander JSHD 1972; Smit, et al JSHD 1990 and the Nebraska-Iowa Articulation Norms Project