Intelligibility Guidelines
Can you understand what your child is saying?
Does your child speak clearly?
Do you have to translate your child's speech to others?
This is called intelligibility. The term intelligibility refers to how much a
listener can understand the speaker. In typical development, as children learn
to talk, their comprehensibility to those around them steadily increases.
In young children there is often quite a marked difference between
understanding:
Single words vs. conversational speech
Known conversational topics vs. unknown conversational topics
Parents and close family members are usually experts at understanding their own
child's speech attempts. We have seen many parents "translate" even the most
unintelligible efforts made by their children! With regard to families,
siblings may sometimes be more adept than parents in comprehending what their
little brothers and sisters are saying! Unfamiliar listeners, on the other
hand, are often unable to decipher a young child's speech.
| Approximate Age
|
Percentage of
Understood by Parents
|
|
Want to work on specific sounds with your child?
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|
| 18 months
|
A typical child is 25% intelligible.
|
| 2 years
|
A typical child is 50-70% intelligible.
|
| 3 years
|
A typical child is 80% intelligible.
|
| 4 years
|
A typical child is 90% intelligible.
|
