Fronting is expected to be eliminated by what age?

Fronting refers to a speech pattern where sounds that should be articulated in the back of the mouth, like /k/ and /g/, are pronounced at the front, such as /t/ and /d/. This developmentally normal process typically resolves as children grow and their speech systems mature.

The expectation is that fronting will generally resolve by around 4 years of age. At this point, most children have developed their articulatory skills enough to accurately produce the sounds they were previously fronting.

While some children may still exhibit fronting after this age, particularly in certain contexts or due to other underlying issues, it is widely accepted in the field of speech-language pathology that by age 4, children should be able to correctly place these sounds in the appropriate articulatory position for intelligible speech.