How to Teach the L Sound

The L sound, as in lolly, love and Lucy, is a speech sound that many children begin using relatively early in their speech development.

Some children find the L sound tricky, particularly because it requires them to lift their tongue up and forwards into the correct position.

In the video above, Grow & Tell Speech Pathologist Jules demonstrates one of the first steps we use when helping children learn to produce the L sound.

Meet our team of paediatric speech pathologists and occupational therapists at Grow & Tell.

When Should Children Be Able to Say the L Sound?

Children develop speech sounds gradually, and there is variation between children.

The L sound may begin emerging from around three years of age. If your child is approaching four and is consistently having difficulty producing the L sound, it may be worth discussing their speech development with a speech pathologist.

It's also important to distinguish between producing a single L sound and using L within more complicated words.

For example, words containing consonant clusters such as fly and flash can take longer to master because the child needs to produce two consonant sounds together.

Why Is the L Sound Difficult for Some Children?

Producing a clear L requires the tongue to move into a particular position.

The tongue needs to move up and towards the front of the mouth. For children who have difficulty finding this position, visual and physical cues can make the movement easier to understand.

Children who have difficulty producing L may substitute another sound.

For example:

• Lucy might sound more like “Woocy”

• Lucky might sound more like “Yucky”

These substitutions give us useful information about how the child is currently producing the sound and what they may need help changing.

Step 1: Teach the L Sound by Itself

When teaching a new speech sound, we don't usually start by expecting the child to say complicated words.

The first goal is simply to establish a clear L sound on its own.

A mirror can be particularly useful.

Have your child watch your mouth as you demonstrate the sound and then look at their own mouth in the mirror while they try it.

You might say:

“We're going to learn a new sound. I'm going to have a turn, and then you're going to have a turn.”

Show your child how your tongue lifts up towards the front of your mouth.

Helping Your Child Find the Correct Tongue Position

Some children understand the instruction “put your tongue up” immediately. Others benefit from a more concrete cue.

With parental supervision and where appropriate for the child, a spoon can be used as a visual or physical prompt to demonstrate where the tongue needs to move.

Another strategy for children who find the movement particularly difficult is to initially exaggerate the tongue movement.

Rather than worrying about perfect placement immediately, you may have them practise lifting or extending their tongue while vocalising. The initial goal is helping the child understand the concept of moving their tongue upwards and forwards while making a sound.

Once they understand the movement, the tongue position can gradually become more accurate.

Practise the L Sound Repeatedly

Once your child can find the correct tongue position, practise the L sound several times.

For example, you might aim for around 10 repetitions while your child watches your mouth or uses the mirror to monitor their own tongue.

Keep the practice positive and relatively short. At this stage, we're building familiarity and confidence with the movement rather than expecting the child to use the sound perfectly in everyday conversation.

Step 2: Add a Vowel

Once the child is confidently producing L by itself, the next step is to begin combining it with other sounds.

For example:

L + ah → “la”

Pictures can help make this more meaningful. If you're practising “la”, you might use a picture of someone singing “la, la, la.”

This helps the child connect the speech practice with something familiar rather than simply repeating sounds without context.

Moving From the L Sound Into Words

Eventually, we want to move from practising L by itself to producing it correctly in words.

Initially, it can help to leave a small pause between the L sound and the rest of the word.

For example, rather than immediately expecting:

Lucy

you might practise:

“L … ucy”

That small separation gives the child time to establish the correct tongue position before completing the word.

As their accuracy and confidence improve, you can gradually reduce the pause:

L … ucy → L..ucy → Lucy

The goal is eventually for the word to sound natural without the child needing to consciously think about their tongue placement.

Speech Sound Therapy Is a Gradual Process

Learning a new speech sound doesn't usually happen in a single step.

Speech pathologists typically work through a progression — beginning with producing the sound by itself and gradually moving towards syllables, words, phrases, sentences and eventually using the sound accurately during everyday conversation.

The important first step with L is helping your child understand where their tongue needs to go and how the sound should feel.

Once that foundation is established, we can gradually make the task more complex.

Does Your Child Have Difficulty With the L Sound?

If your child is having difficulty producing the L sound, or you're concerned about how clearly they are speaking compared with other children their age, a speech pathologist can assess their speech sound development.

At Grow & Tell, our paediatric speech pathologists support children with speech sounds and articulation, including children who have difficulty producing sounds such as L.

We provide speech pathology from our Sydney clinics as well as online speech therapy via Telehealth for families across Australia.