Can You Understand Your Toddler? What’s Normal — and What’s Not

Have you ever stared blankly at your toddler after they’ve said something - and had no idea what they just said?

You are not alone!

It’s completely normal for young children to be hard to understand at items. It is even expected that their speech will be unclear - but how much should you be able to understand? And when it is time to be worried?

Let’s dive in…

What is Speech Intelligibility?

Speech intelligibility refers to how clearly someone can be understood by others. It’s one of the ways we track speech development - and it gives us helpful clues about how your child’s sound system is developing.

What’s Typical for Toddlers and Preschoolers?

While every child develops at their own pace, there are general guidelines or milestones for how understandable a child should be at different ages. (If you don’t already have our free Language Tracker, grab it here - it covers key communication milestones from birth to age 3!)

Here are the speech intelligibility milestones for toddlers and preschoolers:

• By age 2: About 50% of your child’s speech should be understood.
• By age 3: That number jumps to 75%.
• By age 4: You should understand about 90-100% of what your child says even if speech errors remain.

This means that by age 4, most children are speaking in full sentences that are easily understood by grown ups and friends - even though some speech errors (like saying “wabbit” for rabbit) are still totally normal.

So…What Impacts Intelligibility?

Speech intelligibility, or how easily a child can be understood, can be impacted by many things, but here are a few of the most common ones:

• Sound errors: Substituting one sound (or sounds) for another (e.g., “tat” for cat)
• Omissions: Leaving out one sound (or sounds) (e.g., “do” for dog)
• Phonological disorders: When your child uses sound patterns of that are typical of a younger child
• Motor planning disorders: When your child has difficulty coordinating the precise movements of speech production to say the words clearly
• Hearing difficulties: Even mild hearing loss (like from frequent ear infections) can impact how sound are learned and produced
• Speed or rhythm of speech: Talking too fast or using an irregular rhythm

When Should You Be Concerned?

If your child is…

Not meeting the intelligibility milestones (listed above) Has many speech errors Gets frustrated when not understood

…it might be time to check in with a SLP.

A SLP can assess whether your child’s speech is on track, explain what is age-appropriate, and help you decide if speech therapy would be helpful.

How You Can Support Your Child at Home

While it’s best to leave direct sound correction to a professional, there are lots of simple ways you can support your child’s intelligibility in everyday life:

• Model clear speech by repeating what your child said with correct sounds (“I see the dog too!)
• Play sound-based games like “I Spy” or rhyming
• Encourage turn-taking and give your child the time they need to express themselves.

Final Thoughts

Unclear speech is part of the process of learning how to talk. But if something doesn’t feel right - trust you gut! Speech intelligibility develops over time, and speech errors are expected!

Early support can make a huge difference in helping your child communicate!