01/05/2026
"Mo wawa peez." "Daddy go tar!" "I goed to the pawk wif Mumma." If you've heard your child say something like this and translated it without thinking, you're a parent. If a stranger had to guess, that's intelligibility.
Here's what most parents aren't told: you understand way more of your child's speech than anyone else does. You fill in the gaps. You know they mean "water" even when it sounds like "wawa." Strangers can't. And what a stranger can understand is the clinical measure of intelligibility.
Swipe through to read what 25%, 50%, 75% and 80%+ intelligibility actually look like in real toddler talk, transcribed. (Yes, R is allowed to wobble at 4. Promise.)
If a stranger consistently understands far less than these markers for your child's age, or if your child gets frustrated being misunderstood, come chat. Save this for the next "is it normal?" moment, and share it with a parent who needs it. 💛
