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Speech is composed of articulation/phonological skills, speech fluency and voice. SLPs examine how a child physically produces sounds and sound patterns, the rate at which s/he is able to speak and how the voice sounds for his/her age and sex.
Articulation Disorders
These circles contain the speech sounds a child should be able to produce at certain ages.
90% of children have all speech sounds by the age of 6 years.
Children's Consonant Acquisition in 27 Languages: A Cross-Linguistic Review
Phonological Disorders
Phonological processes are the speech patterns all young children use to simplify the production of the adult speech they hear. Phonological processes are rules that children apply to a whole class of sounds instead of just one or two mispronunciations. For example, a child may leave off all final consonant sounds and say "ma" for "mat" or "pi" for "pig."
Most children develop out of these patterns as they learn and are able to produce more speech sounds, but some children hang on to the habit. If your child is very difficult to understand, s/he may have more than one phonological process at play.
Motor Speech Disorders
Producing speech requires a complex coordination of the muscle groups that control the larynx with the vocal cords, the lips, the tongue, the jaw and the entire respiratory system.
When you want to speak, the movements are planned and sequenced by the brain, put into motion in milliseconds with the appropriate force, placement and correct timing needed for creating running speech.
Difficulties in this process may result in apraxia or dysarthria. These conditions can occur in children as a part of development and in-born neurological differences or as the result of injuries, neurological changes or illnesses.
Apraxia of speech, whether acquired or developmental involves difficulty in planning, sequencing and/or coordinating relevant muscles for speech production absent of muscle weakness.
Dysarthria, whether acquired or developmental involves a disturbance in muscle control that results in weakness, slowness and/or incoordination in speech production.
Our clinic offers PROMPT therapy to treat speech sound disorders. Learn more about PROMPT therapy by watching the video below or by visiting the PROMPT Institute website.
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