For parents and Speech and Language Therapists
English Speech Sound Acquisition Chart
When do children typically learn to say different speech sounds? Explore our evidence-based guide to English consonant development.
Children develop speech sounds gradually. Some sounds are mastered in the early years, while others take longer to develop. Use this interactive chart to explore typical age ranges, see example words and understand what the research tells us.
These age ranges are developmental guides, not deadlines. Every child is different, and the findings apply to children learning English, not automatically to children learning other languages. For Hebrew, see the Israeli Hebrew guide.
Interactive chart
24 sounds shown
By 3 years(acquired 2;0–2;11, years;months)
By 4 years(acquired 3;0–3;11, years;months)
By 5 years(acquired 4;0–4;11, years;months)
By 6 years(acquired 5;0–5;11, years;months)
By 7 years(acquired 6;0–6;11, years;months)
How to use this chart
An acquisition age is an estimate of when most children in the research were producing a sound correctly. It does not mean that every child must master the sound at that exact age.
The ages come from the 90% criterion: the age band by which 90% of children in the studies produced the sound correctly, averaged across studies. Estimates depend on the children studied, the accent and the assessment method — with a lower (75%) criterion, many sounds are acquired earlier.
- IPA
- International Phonetic Alphabet.
- Consonant
- A speech sound made by constricting or closing the airflow.
- Acquisition
- Developing the ability to produce a sound correctly.
- Intelligibility
- How much of a child’s speech other people can understand.
- Consonant cluster
- Two or more consonants together, such as /sp/ in “spoon”.
What about consonant clusters?
Producing individual consonants correctly does not necessarily mean a child can produce them accurately together. Cluster development has its own research base and is considered separately from single consonants, so we do not give ages for individual clusters here.
- /sp/
spoon - /st/
star - /sk/
skate - /pl/
plane - /tɹ/
tree - /stɹ/
street
Practise S clusters and R clusters on the S sound page and R sound page, or use the word lists.
When might it be helpful to seek advice?
- Your child’s speech is frequently difficult for other people to understand.
- Your child continues to use sound patterns that are unexpected for their age.
- Speech difficulties cause frustration or affect participation in conversations.
- You are concerned about your child’s progress.
- Your child loses speech or communication skills they previously had.
An individual assessment by a speech and language therapist considers the child’s age, language background, speech patterns and overall communication. This chart alone cannot diagnose a speech sound disorder.
Research behind the chart
Primary source for the English ages: Crowe, K., & McLeod, S. (2020). Children’s English consonant acquisition in the United States: A review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 29, 2155–2169. doi:10.1044/2020_AJSLP-19-00168
The review combined 15 studies of 18,907 children acquiring English in the United States, mostly using single-word naming. The chart shows its 90%-criterion age bands, ordered by mean age of acquisition. Results varied between studies because of different assessments, criteria and groups of children.
Cross-linguistic context: McLeod, S., & Crowe, K. (2018). Children’s consonant acquisition in 27 languages: A cross-linguistic review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27(4), 1546–1571. doi:10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0100
Example substitutions are common patterns described for illustration, not data from these papers.