Resources for Speech sound disorders
Articulation Disorders & Phonological Disorders
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SPEECH SOUND DISORDERS
SPEECH SOUND DISORDERS
"Most children make some mistakes as they learn to say new words. A speech sound disorder occurs when mistakes continue past a certain age. Every sound has a different range of ages when the child should make the sound correctly. Speech sound disorders include problems with articulation (making sounds) and phonological processes (sound patterns).
An articulation disorder involves problems making sounds. Sounds can be substituted, left off, added or changed. These errors may make it hard for people to understand you
A phonological process disorder involves patterns of sound errors. For example, substituting all sounds made in the back of the mouth like "k" and "g" for those in the front of the mouth like "t" and "d" (e.g., saying "tup" for "cup" or "das" for "gas")."
For school-aged children (a kid that is 5 years of age or older), speech is expected to be understood for 90-100% of what they say, even if they do have a few articulation errors.
As part of learning the vocabulary they need to participate in speech therapy, your child may learn some or all of their "speech helpers*." These include the...
lips
teeth
alveolar ridge (the spot behind your top front teeth, where your tongue touches sounds like /t/ and /d/ and /n/)
hard palate
velum (soft palate)
tongue
vocal folds (you may know them as the vocal cords)
trachea
epiglottis
lungs
We also talk about our brains and ears as being some of our speech helpers too!
*Other speech/language therapists may also refer to these as the parts of the "speech machine." [click through to learn more]
LISTEN & SAY: how to help your child practice at home
LISTEN & SAY: how to help your child practice at home
Start off practice time by having your child listen to you say a bunch of words with their target sound. This helps them learn the correct way the words should sound.
Have your child practice words that have their sound, in syllables, words, phrases, sentences, reading, or conversation, depending on their current level. Have them self assess after a production, "How did that sound?" to help them learn to distinguish their own correct or incorrect productions.
Don't be too hard on them, but encourage perseverance...they should keep practicing until the end of the prescribed practice time or completion of their assignment...help them learn, "I can do hard things!"
PRACTICE YOUR SOUND BY READING!
PRACTICE YOUR SOUND BY READING!
Reading is already something that Tuscaloosa City Schools encourages our students to do every day at home. In the summer, the public library is a great place for fun (air conditioned) activities for children. You can work on speech and language skills during your daily reading time all year long. Here are some ideas:
Some wonderful people have compiled lists of children's books that are organized by particular speech sounds that they contain a lot of repetitions of, which I have linked for you here:
For big kids that can read chapter books, magazines, and newspapers, have your child do a word hunt for words that that contain their sound(s). "How many words with /r/ can you find on this page?" "See if you can find 5 words with /sh/ in this news article!"
Links
Links
If you want to learn more about phonological processes , this post by Heidi Hanks, the SLP who writes the blog Mommy Speech Thearpy, does a great job of explaining them, especially this chart that describes and provides examples of all the different phonological processes. She tells how they are different from articulation disorders and what those differences look like as far as treating them, too.
Another great resource is her post describing the articulation therapy process. Some of the activities and strategies that she describes are things that she does when she does speech therapy but would be easy for parents to do as home practice as well.
Have a question about
Have a question about
Speech sounds / Articulation / phonology?
Speech sounds / Articulation / phonology?
Get in touch! We're happy to help you find the answers you're looking for.
Get in touch! We're happy to help you find the answers you're looking for.
Please note, the information on this site is by no means exhaustive or fully comprehensive! These are just a few tips and resources to help you along the way. For more information, please speak to your child's speech-language pathologist or other related professional.
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