What areArticulation and Phonological Disorders?
When should I be concerned about my child’s speech? Is it normal for children to mispronounce certain sounds? Will my child outgrow his or her speech habit? These questions (and more!) are some of the most common we receive at Therapy Smarts when parents are seeking evaluative or ongoing care for their child.
Articulation and phonological disorders make up a large percentage of the conditions we treat. Many parents wonder how much of the condition is developmental versus diagnosable. Read on to learn more about these specific disorders, as well as how speech therapy can help!
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What Are Articulation Disorders?
Articulation disorders are when a child struggles to produce certain sound or sound combinations.
Some of the causes behind this difficulty include difficulties with motor (muscle) control, oral conditions such as cleft lip or palette ,or hearing loss.
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What Are Phonological Disorders?
Phonological disorders are when a child struggles to grasp the rules for sound patterns within a language — it often extends to large groups of words.
The cause behind these disorders are often rooted in language as opposed to motor muscle control. It may be the symptom of a developmental delay, other preexisting conditions or may in fact be idiopathic — with no one clear cause.
Signs & Symptoms of Articulation and Phonological Disorders
Signs of an Articulation Disorder may include the following speech patterns:
- Substitutions: (e.g., “wabbit” instead of “rabbit”)
- Omissions: (e.g., “ba” instead of “bag”)
- Distortions: Lisping (e.g., “thun” for “sun”)
- Additions: Adding sounds (e.g., “buh-lue” for “blue”)
Signs of a Phonological Disorder may include:
Final Consonant Deletion
- Omitting the final sound in a word — (ex: “ca” for “cat”)
Cluster Reduction
- Simplifying a consonant cluster (two or more consonants together) — (ex. “poon” for “spoon”)
Fronting
- Replacing sounds made in the back of the mouth with sounds made at the front — (ex. “tat” for “cat”)
Backing
- Replacing front sounds with back sounds — (ex. “gog” for “dog”)
Stopping
- Replacing a long sound like /s/ or /f/ with a short, stop sound like /t/ or /p/ — (ex. “tun” for “sun”)
Gliding
- Replacing /r/ and /l/ with /w/ or /y/ — (ex. “wabbit” for “rabbit”)
Reduplication
- Repeating a syllable of a word (ex – “baba” for “bottle”)
Assimilation
- One sound in a word becomes more like another sound in the word — (ex. “gog” for “dog”)
Initial Consonant Deletion (atypical)
- Leaving off the first consonant of a word — (ex. “up” for “cup”)
Devoicing
- Replacing a voiced consonant (like /b/) with a voiceless one (like /p/) — (ex. “pik” for “big”)
Voicing
- Replacing a voiceless sound with a voiced one — (ex. “big” for “pig”)
Wondering About Developmental Milestones?
Have questions about your child’s development, or wondering if a certain diagnosis may be a fit? Try out our developmental screening tool— it’s a fast, free way to get a snapshot of your child’s progress on his or her developmental milestones.