A speech sound disorder is any difficulty producing sounds that are developmentally appropriate for a child. Articulation therapy can help individuals with speech sound disorders by strengthening their ability to form the speech sounds necessary for effective communication.
The normal development of sounds follows a predictable pattern where certain sounds are mastered before others. Generally, children begin to produce cooing and babbling around 4 months of age. By 7-9 months, vowels tend to become more frequent in the child’s babble, and by 12-18 months, they will start to say their first single words. As they grow older, they begin adding consonants and longer words to their speech. Between the ages of three and five, children should have mastered most production of sounds within their language. There are many charts that show the order in which we develop different speech sounds. See the form below to determine your child’s speech sound errors and which sounds your child should be making at which ages.
Information taken from https://www.asha.org/uploadedFiles/ASHA/Practice_Portal/Clinical_Topics/Late_Language_Emergence/Consonant-Acquisition-Chart.pdf
There are a variety of reasons why a child may display symptoms of articulation disorders or have difficulty producing specific sounds. It could be due to physical limitations such as the structure of their mouth or the strength of their tongue muscles, or it could be because they are not yet developmentally ready to produce those sounds. Some children may also simply lack practice and need more repetition to become proficient at correctly saying all the necessary speech sounds. Other underlying issues like hearing sensitivity, oral motor impairment, and language disorders can also contribute to difficulties with articulation.
These issues may be related to developmental or genetic issues such as:
Speech articulation therapy can help children with sound disorders for a variety of reasons. First, it can help to correct the misarticulations that are causing difficulty in communication. Therapists use various techniques and activities to help the child learn how to produce the desired speech sounds correctly. Additionally, as the child’s skills improve, their confidence also grows, which can positively impact their conversational speech and other areas of their life. Speech articulation therapy is helpful in correcting sound errors and provides a terrific platform for learning new language skills, improving self-esteem, and building better communication habits overall.
Your child may have a pattern of errors that affect many different sounds. This is most commonly the reason a child’s speech is very difficult to understand. Children “learn” how to talk as they grow older, but some do not “grow out” of baby talk. Speech therapy can address these speech errors and improve your child’s speech development.
A sound articulation disorder evaluation typically begins by assessing the individual’s family and medical history and collecting information about any hearing-related problems or other communication delays they may have experienced. Next, a speech-language pathologist (SLP) will perform an articulation assessment to determine the target sound the person is struggling with. Your child will be asked to name different things in pictures, and the speech therapist may have your child produce sentences with different sounds as well. Our clinic utilizes the Goldman Fristoe Test of Articulation 3 to evaluate a child for speech sound errors. Finally, a speech-language pathology specialist may also review any language developmental milestones or other language skills the person has recently achieved to determine a comprehensive plan for helping the individual improve their communication skills.