Articulation disorders
Articulation refers to the production of speech sounds. Children with an articulation disorder may change one sound to another in their speech (substitutions), or may eliminate the sunds entirely (omissions). Children can have a single sound articulation disorder or multiple sounds. Multiple sound disorders are often seen in the form of a Phonological Process disorder. Phonological processes are typical developmental patterns children use to simplify speech as they are developing language. These patterns are normally eliminated by the time a child reaches 4 years of age. If patterns persist, therapy is usually warranted as multiple sound errors can greatly impact a child’s ability to be understood. Phonological Processes addressed in speech and language therapy include:
Fronting: When a sound made in the back of the mouth is changed to the front (“tootie” for “cookie”)
Backing: When a sound made in the front of the mouth is changed to the back (“gog” for “dog”)
Gliding: When the /r/ sounds is changed to a /w/ sound, and the /l/ sound is changed to a /w/ or /y/ sound (“wabbit” for “rabbit” or “yeyo” for “yellow”)
Stopping: When a sound involving air flow (like /s/) is changed to a stop consonant (like /b/ or /d/)- “dun” for “sun”
Cluster Reduction: When a consonant blend is reduced to a single consonant (“bue” for “blue” or “tar” for “star”)
Final Consonant Deletion: When the consonant at the end of a word is eliminated altogether (“toe” for “toad”)
Reduplication: When the initial consonant and vowel of a word is repeated (“baba” for “bottle”)
Voicing/De-Voicing: Changing a voiced consonant to a voiceless consonant (“pick” for “pig”) or a voiceless consonant to a voiced one (“gomb” for “comb”)
Initial Consonant Deletion: When the beginning sound of a word is eliminated (“all” for “ball”)
Weak Syllable Deletion: When the unstressed syllable of a word is omitted (“nana” for “banana”)
Epenthesis: the addition of a vowel “uh” sound between consonants in a word (“balue” for “blue” or “doga” for “dog”