ARTICULATION AND PHONOLOGICAL DISORDERS

Two of the most common speech-sound disorders are Articulation Disorders and Phonological Disorders. According to the American Speech-Language Hearing Association:

"Articulation disorders focus on errors (e.g., distortions and substitutions) in production of individual speech sounds. Phonological disorders focus on predictable, rule-based errors (e.g., fronting, stopping, and final consonant deletion) that affect more than one sound."

According to the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA):

"The acquisition of speech sounds is a developmental process, and children often demonstrate "typical" errors and phonological patterns during this acquisition period. Developmentally appropriate errors and patterns are taken into consideration during assessment for speech sound disorders in order to differentiate typical errors from those that are unusual or not age appropriate." For further information on speech-sound disorders, please visit ASHA's website.

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)

Other children have difficulty producing sounds clearly and accurately because of a disorder known as Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). According to the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA):

"Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a neurological childhood (pediatric) speech sound disorder in which the precision and consistency of movements underlying speech are impaired in the absence of neuromuscular deficits (e.g. abnormal reflexes, abnormal tone). CAS may occur as a result of known neurological impairment, in association with complex neurobehavioral disorders of known and unknown origin, or as an idiopathic neurogenic speech sound disorder. The core impairment in planning and/or programming spatiotemporal parameters of movement sequences results in errors in speech sound production and prosody. (ASHA, 2007b, Definitions of CAS section, para. 1)."