As long as a child shows continuous progress, pronouncing words wrong some of the time is normal. But if your child continues to mispronounce many words and shows no improvement, she could have a problem. Her doctor may refer her to an audiologist who will test her hearing. KidsHealth points out that some speech problems also are caused by tongue or palate problems, developmental delays or oral-motor problems. An oral-motor problem has to do with how a child moves his tongue, lips and palate to make sounds.