Articulation Center

What is an Articulation Disorder?

Children with articulation disorders can be known to do one or more of the following...

• delete sounds (child says: /bu/ instead of /bus/)
• substitute sounds (child says: /sree/ instead of /three/)
• add sounds (child says: /spagbetti/ instead of /spaghetti/
• distort sounds (child says: /thpoon/ instead of /spoon/

Individual sounds develop by certain ages. If a sound isn't developed by the expected age, the child could have an articulation disorder.

excerpt from Home speech home website

Typical Speech Sound Development

A traditional speech therapy hierarchy may resemble the following:

• Sounds in isolation
• Sounds in words (i.e., all word positions: initial, medial and final)
• Sounds in phrases
• Sounds in sentences
• Sounds in reading/writing
• Sounds in spontaneous conversational speech

Articulation therapy involves significant repetition and targeting of the sounds in error. Although drills are often targeted, a speech pathologist will use a variety of methods to target sounds and keep your child motivated. Once the sound has been mastered at all levels of the hierarchy, it is likely to be remedied with minimal maintenance needed in order to support the best production.

excerpt from North Shore pediatric therapy website