Written By: Kaitlin Bednarz M.S., CCC-SLP
Do you hear your child leaving off the final sounds of words? Is your child saying “do” for “dog” and “ca” for “cat” when talking? We have a word for this error! It’s called final consonant deletion, or FCD. Final consonant deletion is typical in speech until around age 3 years old! Final consonant deletion is important to consider because this error system may be impacting your child’s intelligibility which is the ability to be understood by communication partners! If your child says “ca” when talking, the listener may not know if your child means “car”, “cat”, “can”, “cap”, etc.
If you notice your child is presenting with final consonant deletion before the age of 3, we
recommend modeling the whole word for your child so your child can hear you say the final sound. In therapy, we often emphasize the last sound as well by:
Pointing to the last sound in the word
Calling the last sound the “tail sound” and “ending sound”
Tapping or clapping while producing the final sound
If your child continues to leave sounds off the end of words past the age of 3 or if your child’s words are hard to understand, then come visit Jump Start for an evaluation and we can share all of our fun tips to help your child communicate with others!
References
Bauman-Waengler, J. A. (2012). Articulatory and phonological impairments. New York, NY: Pearson Higher Education.
Bernthal, J., Bankson, N. W., & Flipsen, P., Jr. (2013). Articulation and phonological disorders. New York, NY: Pearson Higher Education.
References for Likely Age of Elimination
Peña-Brooks, A., & Hegde, M. N. (2015). Assessment and Treatment of Speech Sound Disorders in Children: A Dual-Level Text. Austin, TX: PRO-ED.
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