What difficulty might a 4 to 5-year-old experience in speech?

For a 4 to 5-year-old, articulating sounds such as l, r, v, z, ch, sh, and th can present a significant difficulty. At this developmental stage, children are typically refining their speech but may struggle with certain sounds that require more precise tongue placement and airflow.

This challenge is a common characteristic of speech development in young children, as many of the more complex sounds do not fully emerge until later in childhood. For instance, the sounds mentioned often require fine motor control of the tongue and mouth, and younger children usually develop these skills progressively.

In contrast, while it's not uncommon for a child in this age group to have challenges with speaking in complex sentences, the focus here is more on the articulation of specific sounds rather than grammatical structure. Similarly, identifying letters of the alphabet pertains more to literacy skills than to speech articulation. Pronouncing vowels is generally more fluid at this age, as most children can articulate basic vowel sounds more easily compared to the consonant sounds highlighted in this option.