Types of speech sounds, and how to support them in class
- Beth Morrant
- Apr 28, 2020
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 21
If you're a teacher, SENCo or early years practitioner, understanding speech sounds can help you spot difficulties and support children more effectively in class. In this guide I'll explain the different types of speech sounds, how they're made and what it looks like when children struggle.
Did you know there are different types of speech sounds? Have you worked with a child in the past who has focused on back sounds, or flow sounds, and wondered "what does that mean"?
Well, us humans are clever things and utilise different parts of our mouth and throat, controlling airflow in particular ways to produce a range of sounds. As a native English speaker, I’ll focus on English sounds but there may be some theory you can put towards sounds in any other language you are using with your child.
Speech Sounds: Voice, Place, Manner
This is the foundation phrase Speech and Language Therapists use when referring to speech sounds. Some sounds can be loud, like a D or V sound and others can be quiet or whispered like a T or H. This refers to the use of voice, utilising the voice box for the louder sounds and switching it off (or not vibrating the vocal folds) for quieter sounds.
When looking at place, this refers to where in the mouth the sound is made i.e. at the front or the back, with the tongue, teeth or lips.
The Manner of articulation indicates air flow and whether a speech sound is made when the air flow is stopped, allowed to flow a little or whether it is a sound made when the air flows out of the nose (like when producing a M sound).
Teachers and support staff often tell me this is where things get confusing, which is why I created a quick Speech Sounds Screener. It shows you exactly which types of sounds a child is finding tricky. Â
Different places of Articulation
We make speech sounds in a few different places in our mouth and throat.
Lip sounds- these types of speech sounds are made by using the lips in some sort of way. P, B and M are made with both lips pressed together, W is made with lips rounded and F and V are made with the bottom lip tucked under the top front teeth.
Alveolar sounds- this refers to the hard palatal ridge just behind your top teeth. Here we make the T, D, N, S, Z, L, SH, CH, J. These are also referred to as front sounds.
Back sounds- other types of speech sounds are made towards the back of the mouth include K, G, NG. There are some other sounds made here in other languages, for example the Spanish ‘j’, Greek Ɣ and German ‘ch’.
Glide sounds- these speech sounds are made when articulators move, R, L, W, Y.
What are 'Stop' and 'Flow' sounds?
Some of the sounds that we produce are made when the airflow is stopped and then released. Think of the ‘p’ sound. We produce this sound by pressing our lips together and letting air come out of our lungs but stopping it with our closed lips. Then we release the lips and the ‘puh’ sound is made.
The same thing happens for the ‘t’ sound, except this time we use the tongue tip on the ridge behind the teeth (the alveolar ridge) to stop the air flow and then release to make the ‘tuh’ sound. Try it and think about your tongue when you're making this sound.
The technical term for these ‘stoppy sounds’ is plosive. Stop sounds used in English are P, B, T, D, K, G.
Other speech sounds are made by letting the air flow through our articulators. Like the ‘s’ sound. For this sound we hover the tongue tip on the ridge behind the top teeth and let the air flow through to make the ‘sss’ sound.
Now try with the ‘f’ sound. For this we need to trap the bottom lip under the top teeth gently so that we can let the air flow to make this sound. This is one of my favourite sounds to help children with because we can make a rabbit face to encourage them to make this sound.
The technical term for ‘flowy sounds’ is fricative. Flow sounds in English are F, V, TH, S, Z, SH, H.
If you'd like ready-made classroom games for thee sounds, my Speech Sounds eBook has over 20 activities you can use straight away (with bonus demonstration videos from me!)
How to spot speech sound problems?
When speech sound difficulties occur, it is usually because a child is replacing one type of speech sounds with another. For example, they may be replacing a front sound T with a back sound K/C (saying key instead of tea). OR they may replace a flow sound F with a stop sound D (saying dock for sock).
A Speech and Language Therapist will be able to use samples of a child’s speech, usually with a picture naming assessment, to figure out what sounds a child can say, what sounds are missing or replaced, if the child has any particular difficulty with saying a type of sound and then decide on the best way to help make these difficulties better.
There's a Speech Sounds Screener in The Speech & Language Garden that you can download and use to identify which sounds your child is using and which are more tricky. Then you can either work on those sounds using the help of my Speech Sounds Steps to Success course or use the screener to support your referral to your local SALT service.
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What to do next?
Want to identify which sounds are tricky? Download the Speech Sounds Screener.
Want to understand speech sound development in depth? Join my online course Speech Sounds: Steps to Success.
Want quick games to use tomorrow? Get my Speech Sounds Games & Activities eBook
Want to know which speech sounds your child should be making by which age? Access my free infosheet here.
Hi I'm Beth, a Highly Specialist Paediatric Speech & Language Therapist.
I help schools and early years settings identify Speech, Language & Communication Needs (SLCN) and give staff the tools to support children effectively. Explore my CPD Training Packages and Resources to get started.