My 2 Year Old Is Talking Gibberish
Should you be concerned if your two or three year old is talking in gibberish?
This is a question we receive on Toddler Talk regularly, and according to speech therapy experts speaking gibberish isn’t a necessarily a bad thing, unless your child doesn’t get easier to understand over time.
How long should you expect your child to talk in gibberish?
And at what age should your child be able to make sounds you can understand?
We cover all this and more in this article along with a free guide to help you make progress with your child's pronunciation.
If you’re looking to make an immediate impact on your child’s speech development, be sure to check out the full Toddler Talk Program which includes an assessment so you know exactly what your child is ready to practice so they can say more words, in less time.
At what age do children usually talk in gibberish?
Gibberish, referred to as jargon by speech therapists, can be thought of as an advanced form of babbling. Babies usually begin talking in jargon before their first birthday.
By the time children are 2 years old, speech therapists look for them to use more real words than jargon. If you have a hard time understanding your toddler, it is because your child is still learning to pronounce different sounds.
Keep reading to learn about what age young children learn different sounds and what you can do if you're worried about your child's pronunciation.
At what age should my child say a certain sound?
Below you can see each sound kids should master in English according to their age.
As a parent, think about the different words your kid says or imitates throughout the day.
These are sounds 75% of kids master between the ages of 24 months - 36 months.
"P" as in pop, pee, and pig
"B" as in beep, bye, and ba-ba
"T" as in toy, tea, and hat
"D" as in dad, doggy, and door
"M" as in mom, me, and yum
"N" as in no, (ba)nana, and on
"H" as in hi, hey, and hot
"W" as in whee, wet, and wow
"K" as in key, okay, and cookie
"G" as in good, gummy, and dog
"F" as in off, fun, and for
3 year olds
These are sounds 75% of kids master between the ages of 36 months - 48 months.
“ng” as in ring, king, and sing
"V" as in very, oven, and over
"S" as in see, swim, and sit
"Z" as in zoo, dizzy, and zoom
"Sh" as in shut, shoe, and show
"R" as in read, road, and roar
"L" as in light, look, and ball
"Ch" as in cheese, chew, and chicken
"J" as in jump, juice, and Jeep
4 years olds
This sound is mastered by 75% of kids before they turn 5.
"Th" (hard) as in this, that, and there
5 year olds
This sound is mastered by 75% of kids before they turn 6.
"Th" (soft) as in thing, brother, and bath
These expectations for speech sounds have been derived from the work of Crowe and McLeod (2020): Children's English Consonant Acquisition in the United Stated: A Review
Should I be concerned if my child doesn’t say things the way I do or less clear than other children?
Let’s dive into what makes words easier or harder for you to understand.
A child learning to make all of the sounds used in speech is really hard for them! Remember to be patient with your child and yourself.
To move all of our mouth and throat muscles (what we call their oral motor system) in a perfectly timed pattern of movements takes time.
As an example if your 2.5 year old child says “wabbit” instead of “rabbit,” that is perfectly normal.
We would expect that error of a 2.5 year old because the R isn’t expected to be mastered (mastery is when 90% of children can produce a sound) until age 4.
We call these types of errors developmental errors; they are normal errors within a child’s development and should improve with age and skill advancement.
To learn more about toddler milestones for pronunciation, watch this video:
So what can you do to improve their sounds?
In our Toddler Talk Program we give parents a personalized lesson roadmap so you can teach your child to speak based on their unique milestones.
If you are ready to practice pronunciation improvement with your child (that was a mouthful) then download our free worksheet on what you should practice next.
In this worksheet you’ll learn:
The different types of sounds in order from easiest to hardest
Sample activities to practice each sounds that you can integrate in everyday play
The number one mistake most parents make that holds many children back
Here’s a list of other common questions asked by toddler parents:
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Yes! It is expected that a 2 year old will continue to babble as they are learning to talk. 2 year olds should also say about 100 words on their own and be speaking in jargon (or gibberish) sometimes.
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As a general rule of thumb, you’ll know it’s time to seek the support of a speech therapist if your 2 year old says less than about 100 words, if you understand less than half the things they say, or if you notice it’s challenging for them to learn new words.
To learn even more speech and language milestones milestones for 2 year olds, continue reading here.
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Listen for 2 year olds to speak clearly at least half of the time. 2 year olds are still learning to pronounce several sounds, so you wouldn’t expect to understand everything they say.
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The answer to this question depends on how you define talking; so I will share several talking milestones for toddlers.
Babies generally say their first word between 10-14 months old.
Toddlers usually say at least 100 words by the time they turn 2.
Toddlers generally begin putting words together between 18-24 months.
© 2020-2023. Stephanie Keffer, MS CCC-SLP. All Rights Reserved.
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