When does pronunciation get better?

The boys say ALOT of words...only maybe 1/3 that other people can understand :laughing: When does it start to improve? I mean "bepen" is cute and all...but other people need to know they want it "Open" LOL! Of course they imitate each other so all words that are spoken incorrectly are spoken wrong by both! Soooo cute and I love it but I feel bad no one else can understand them!

 

I would say pronunciation started to really improve at age 2 and continues to improve for my two.

 

It will improve over time and you may not recognize it as much as other family or friends who see them less frequently. I have met many 3 yr olds who have problems with pronunciation. I have heard from my firend who is a school child psych - that you can expect most pronunciation issues to resolve by 5. My 4 yr old still has issues with "f" and "S". Just speak clearly to them and they will eventually pick it up.
Sheri

 

The rule of thumb doctors go by is 50% understandable by age 2, 75% by age 3.

 

this is what i was told as well. my girls are still fairly incomprehensible - sometimes even to me & DH! ardon:

 

My guys are getting better, but I still have a hard time understanding them. I felt bad for a while (because I WOTH), but my nanny can't understand half of it either! :lol: Nate started saying "alats", and repeating it for weeks. I just figured out a few days ago that he was saying "ambulance". Who knew?!

HERE is a neat article about speech intelligibility from 18-24 months; it talks about how much parents and strangers should be able to understand of a child's speech at different ages.

 

I just had a pedi appt and she said that at age 2, 50% of what they say should be understandable by others. By age 3, 75%, and by age 4, it should be 100% understandable.

 

My dd is about to turn 4 and there are a few words she still mispronounces. For the most part she's fine, it's just habit and we are trying to correct those few words because she starts school next week! :lol: