Speech Sound Disorders
It’s normal for young children learning language skills to have some trouble saying words the right way. That’s part of the learning process.
Articulation Disorder:
Producing speech sounds incorrectly.
Signs/symptoms of an Articulation Disorder include:
- Deleting a sound in a word (e.g., ca for cat)
- Substituting one sound for another (e.g., wun instead of run)
- Adding an extra sound to a word (e.g. balue for blue)
- Distorting the sound (e.g., lisp on the “s” sound)
- Close friends/family as well as strangers have a hard time understanding what your child is saying.
Phonological Processes:
Error patterns in speech. Some of the patterns are normal at a young age. However, most patterns are eliminated at a certain age.
Phonological Processes include:
- Final consonant deletion: consonant or syllable is deleted at the end of the word. (e.g., “lea” for “leaf”)
- Backing: producing a back sound, such as /k/ or /g/ instead of front sounds, /t/ and /d/. (e.g., “kom” for “Tom”)
- Stopping: producing a stop sound, such as /t/ or /d/ instead of fricative sounds, /f/ and /s/. (e.g., “tock” for “sock”)
- Gliding: producing the glide sounds, /w/ or /y/ instead of liquid consonants, /r/ and /l/. (e.g., “wight” for “light”)
-
Fronting: Producing a front sound, /t/ or /d/ instead of
a back sound, /k/ and /g/. (e.g., “tat” for “cat”)