children’s therapy
articulation and phonological Disorders
Improving Your child’s ARTICULATION & pronunciation
Articulation is the process of our breath, voice, and various parts of the mouth, working together to create sounds and ultimately, speech.
When a child produces words or sounds incorrectly they are said to have an articulation difficulty. Most children will make speech errors when they are first learning to speak. However, those with speech and articulation difficuties will experience errors that persist beyond an age where they are expected to resolve.
Some examples of Articulation Difficulties include:
» saying “wabbit” instead of “rabbit”
» saying “poon” instead of “spoon”
» saying “thummer” instead of “summer“
PHONOLOGICAL PROCESS DISORDERS
A phonological process disorder involves patterns of sound errors which results in an inability to correctly form the sounds of words.
As children develop, their sounds and words become more developed as well. Their little mouths are trying to figure out the correct position of their lips, tongue and jaw for increasingly complicated speech. Producing speech as adults do is a complex action and, as a result, children often simplify their speech in predictable patterns called phonological processes. As a child’s motor and language systems develop, they often stop using these processes. However, if they continue utilizing the process beyond a certain age, they are said to have a Phonological Disorder.
Some of the more common phonological processes or patterns that we see include:
Assimilation
Where one sounds becomes the same or similar to another sounds in the word (i.e. ‘kuck’ for ‘duck’)
Substitution
Where one sounds is substituted for another sound in a systematic way (i.e. ‘tar’ for ‘car’)
Syllable Structure
Where sounds changes are made that affect the syllable structure of the word (i.e. ‘nana’ for ‘banana’)
plan for success
At Wonderspeak, we understand how important it is to have your child succeed at home, at school, and at life.
Either one of the above difficulties can lead to your child having trouble being understood by others. We will provide a fun & engaging Speech Assessment that will hold the attention of your little one. We will pinpoint their speech errors, identify misproduction patterns, and set your child on the path to clearer speech.