In very young children who are just beginning to talk, it is common for them to leave off (or "drop") the final consonant sound. For example, the word "dog" might be produced "do-." As you can imagine, this error pattern can make it difficult to understand what a child is saying. By the time a child is age three, we like to see this error pattern eliminated (meaning we like to see three year olds producing final consonants in words).
If your 3+ year-old is having difficulty producing final consonants, it's a good idea to chat with a Speech-Language Pathologist to determine if therapy is appropriate and/or if there are things you could do at home to help your child increase final consonant production. For some children, simply helping him/her LISTEN more critically to notice that there is indeed a sound at the end of a word can help him/her begin to produce these sounds more.
Choose some CVC (consonant vowel consonant) or VC (vowel consonant) words that are meaningful to your child and plan a simple play scheme around one or two of these words. Every time you produce the target sound, bring extra emphasis to the final sound (produce the sound louder with your voice, clap as you make the sound, tap the child's arm as you make the sound, etc.). An example activity could be popping bubbles. Blow bubbles with your child and show your child how to POP the bubbles while saying "POP!" "POP!" Make that final /p/ sound extra-loud! Maybe even POP a bubble as you produce that final /p/ sound.
The Speech Chicks, a great SLP blog, has a good free resource for working on final consonants (Click to check it out!):
Final Consonants
I've personally used this resource with some of my students and really like it!
Happy talking :)
~Mrs. Wells
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