When should a child be able to say R?
Most English-speaking children produce R accurately by around age 6. Before roughly 4½ it is normal for R to be unstable or substituted, most often with W. Between 5 and 6 is a grey zone where many children resolve it without help. From age 6 onwards, a persisting R error is worth having a speech-language pathologist assess, because it is the sound least likely to correct itself after that point.
4 min read · Updated 9 August 2026
Why there is a range and not a date
Speech sound norms come from studies of large groups of children, and they report the age by which a given percentage — usually 90% — produce a sound accurately. That is a statement about a population, not a deadline for an individual.
So “R by 6” means most children have it by 6. It does not mean a child of 6 and 2 months who does not have it has a disorder. It means that from that point, the odds of it resolving unaided drop enough that checking is the sensible move.
How R compares to the other late sounds
- K and G settle early, around age 4. A child still saying “tat” for “cat” at 4½ is worth checking sooner than an R error at the same age.
- S, L, SH, CH and J typically settle around age 5.
- R is usually placed around age 6.
- TH is the last to arrive, often not until 7. A six-year-old saying “fumb” for “thumb” is squarely within normal.
The practical consequence: the same behaviour at the same age means different things depending on which sound it is. This is the single most useful thing for a parent to know, and the thing a generic “speech milestones” list usually obscures.
What the grey zone between 5 and 6 is for
In that year, roughly speaking, some children work R out and some do not, and there is no reliable way to tell in advance which group a particular child is in.
Starting short daily practice during that window costs very little and has no downside, provided it stays light and stops well short of frustration. It is not intervention in a clinical sense — it is giving the child more chances to find a tongue position they cannot see.
Signs that age is not the main question
Age norms only apply when the rest of the picture is unremarkable. Regardless of which sound is involved and how old your child is, arrange an assessment if they have lost words or skills they previously had, if you have any concern about their hearing, if they are over 4 and strangers cannot understand them, if there is difficulty chewing or swallowing, or if they visibly struggle or avoid speaking.
Those signs sit outside the norms tables entirely, and they warrant a person rather than a chart.
Common questions
Is it normal for a 5-year-old not to say R?
Yes, commonly. Age 5 sits inside the window where R is still settling for a substantial proportion of children. It is a reasonable point to begin light daily practice, and a reasonable point to raise it at a routine check-up, but it is not by itself a sign that anything is wrong.
My 7-year-old still cannot say R. Is it too late?
No. R is routinely and successfully worked on in older children, teenagers and adults. What changes with age is not whether it can be corrected but how long it takes, because a well-established motor habit has to be replaced rather than simply learned. This is an argument for starting now rather than for giving up.
Which speech sound is the last to develop in English?
TH, typically around age 7, with R usually just ahead of it at around 6. Both are late for the same underlying reason: the tongue position is hard to see, hard to feel, and easily approximated by an easier neighbouring sound.
This guide is general information about typical speech development. It does not diagnose and it is not a substitute for assessment by a licensed speech-language pathologist.