Articulation Delays & Disorders
Difficulties producing specific speech sounds correctly, affecting clarity and intelligibility.
Articulation delays and disorders involve difficulty producing individual speech sounds correctly. Children with articulation delays may substitute, omit, distort, or add sounds in ways that are not age-appropriate, making their speech harder for others to understand. While some sound errors are a normal part of development, persistent errors beyond expected ages may indicate a true articulation disorder.
Articulation disorders can result from structural differences (such as dental malocclusion or a short lingual frenulum), motor planning challenges, hearing loss, or may have no identifiable cause. A thorough evaluation by a speech-language pathologist can determine whether a child's sound production is within normal developmental limits or requires intervention.
Treatment for articulation disorders typically involves structured practice of target sounds in isolation, syllables, words, phrases, and connected speech. Therapy is highly effective, and most children make significant progress with consistent intervention and home practice.
Signs & Symptoms
- •Substituting one sound for another (e.g., "wabbit" for "rabbit")
- •Omitting sounds in words (e.g., "nana" for "banana")
- •Distorting sounds so they do not sound like typical productions
- •Being difficult for unfamiliar listeners to understand
- •Frustration or reluctance to communicate due to speech errors
Treatment Approaches
- •Traditional articulation therapy targeting sound production in a hierarchy
- •Phonetic placement techniques to teach correct tongue and lip positioning
- •Minimal pair therapy to highlight sound contrasts
- •Home practice programs with structured carryover activities
- •Use of visual and tactile cues to support accurate production
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