When your child says the wrong sound don’t put pressure on them.

A child’s speech sound development is gradual and some children can develop sounds at different times to other children.

Children will tend to say or produce a speech sound when they are developmental ready – it’s not laziness when they’re not producing a particular sound ; and just because they can copy a sound or say it on its own, does not mean they’ll be able to use it in words or sentences (yet ! )  if your child is making errors in their speech eg if you say ‘tat’ instead of ‘cat’, the best thing to do is model the way of saying it in a really positive way eg That’s right a cat, really emphasising the correct sound.

Don’t correct them and try and make them repeat it after you this could affect their confidence and put them off talking.

Speech sounds continue to develop up to the age of 7.