At what age are most children able to produce all consonants and consonant blends correctly?

Children typically develop their speech skills in a predictable sequence, and the ability to produce all consonants and consonant blends correctly usually matures around the age of 8. By this age, most children achieve articulation proficiency, refining their speech sound production to include not only individual consonants but also various consonant blends, which are combinations of two or three consonants pronounced in succession.

Developmental milestones indicate that certain sounds are mastered earlier than others, with more complex combinations like consonant blends being among the last to be acquired. For example, sounds like /m/, /p/, and /b/ are often mastered by age 3, while blends involving sounds such as /st/ or /tr/ typically come later, around ages 7 to 8.

Thus, recognizing that the majority of children will be able to articulate the full range of consonants and blends correctly by age 8 aligns with the understanding of typical speech and language development milestones observed in the field of speech-language pathology.