By age 3, which phonemes should children have typically mastered?

By age 3, children typically have mastered a variety of foundational phonemes essential for early speech development. The correct answer identifies the sounds that children tend to produce consistently by this age.

The sounds represented in the correct choice—/m/, /w/, /g/, /f/, and /d/—are among the early developing consonants. These phonemes are easier for young children to articulate as they gain control over their vocal tract and experiment with sound production. Mastering these sounds helps children establish a solid foundation for further speech development as they begin to combine sounds into more complex words and phrases.

In contrast, the other choices include phonemes that generally develop later in a child's speech acquisition timeline. For example, the sounds /t/, /ʃ/, and /j/ in one of the other options are typically mastered by ages 4 to 5. The sounds /s/, /v/, /ŋ/, /r/, and /l/ are generally acquired between ages 5 and 7, while the fricatives and affricates like /θ/, /ð/, and /ʒ/ are usually mastered even later, around ages 7 to 8.

Understanding the typical timeline for phoneme acquisition is crucial for