Articulation

What is articulation?

Articulation (pronunciation) is the ability to physically move the tongue, lips, teeth and jaw to produce sequences of speech sounds, which make up words and sentences.

What is an articulation disorder?

What is an articulation disorder? An articulation disorder is a communication disorder in which a person has difficulty producing certain sounds correctly in conversational speech. For example, a child with difficulty pronouncing the /r/ sound may say “wabbit” for “rabbit,” or a child with difficulty with the /l/ sound may say “wamp” for “lamp.”

As children are developing and growing in early childhood, articulation errors are common. Just like the rest of their body, their mouths and brains have to develop and learn how to work together, which is a learning process, just like learning to walk. However, sometimes articulation errors may persist past the time when they are developmentally appropriate; when this happens, the errors are considered to be an articulation disorder.

Typical Ages of Sound Acquisition

The chart below shows a general overview of what sounds should be developed by what approximate age for English speaking children. Keep in mind that all children are different, and so development of speech sounds (especially later developing sounds) may vary slightly between children.

Age 2-3 /b/ /h/ /m/ /n/ /p/ /t/ /w/

Age 4 /d/ /f/ /g/ /k/ /y/

Age 5 /ch/ /dg/ /l/ /sh/ /s/ /ng/ Age 6 /v/ /z A

Note: You may also hear an articulation disorder referred to as a lisp (if it affects sounds like /s/ or/z/) or more generally as a speech sound disorder.