Although children should be evaluated by a speech therapist, articulation screen tests are available online to help parents assess if their children’s speech is typical for their age or delayed.  These sites show a picture related to a word and its sound position (initial, middle, or final position). Parents can identify whether the target sound is correct or not.

Strengthening speech muscles improves communication.  If you can’t afford a speech-language pathologist, verify if your state allow homeschoolers to use therapist services at the public schools.

Children master sounds at different ages. The P, B, M, H, and N sounds should be mastered by age two. By age three, children should be able to make the D, T, K, G, and W sounds. Four-year-olds should be able to pronounce the NG, F, Y, CH, J, L, SH, S and V sounds. While a six-year-old should have mastered the S, L, B blends, a seven-year-old should feel comfortable with the TH sound. 

My son was diagnosed with a speech disorder when he was seven years old; he could not make the TH sound. He had speech therapy at his elementary school for three years with very little improvement. Since consistent practice and repetition is necessary to overcome an articulation disorder, thirty minutes of therapy twice a week was not sufficient. In addition, there were students with varying speech problems included in this thirty-minute session, which worried me that my son would pick up bad speech habits.  His speech therapist instructed me on how to work with him at home by providing speech and articulation worksheets and oral exercises. I summarized everything in a spreadsheet, including the exercises he needed to do for five minutes in the morning and afternoon.