QOD: Is it ok if my child doesn’t sound out letters when talking?
Early on, try to focus on what your child is saying, not how they are saying it.
Many children can't say all their sounds correctly in some words, especially since some sounds develop later than other sounds.
For example, some children may say nake for snake, baba for bottle, or cah for car.
With toddlers and preschoolers, the emphasis should be on what your child is saying, not necessarily on how they are saying it.
Generally by age 2 you should be able to understand half of what your child is saying. By age 3, you should be able to understand 75 percent of what your child is saying. By age 4, you and others should be able to understand 100 percent of what your child is saying, even if all the individual sounds aren't completely perfect.
If your child has many errors and is very difficult to understand by age 3, an evaluation by a speech-language pathologist might be a good idea.
We don’t necessarily correct our 18-month-old son, but once we realize what he’s saying, we do say it the correct way. He usually nods excitedly when we guess what he’s saying. His new word is his version of crackers. It took a lot of guesses and NOs before I figured out he wanted crackers, but he knew what he wanted and when I said “crackers?” he repeated his version and said “uh huh” and nodded yes! 🙂