What is Speech?

According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) speech is how we say sounds and words. Speech includes articulation (i.e., how we make speech sounds), fluency (i.e., the rhythm of our speech), and voice (i.e., how we use our vocal folds and breath to make sounds. The following website provides a nice description: ASHA

How do we Articulate Sounds?

Articulation is how we say sounds and words using the mouth, lips, and tongue. Speaking is one of the modes that may be used for communication and provides a way to verbally express our thoughts and feelings through sounds, syllables, and words. In order to speak, air coming from our lungs and diaphragm creates a sound when it passes through our larynx (also known as our voice box) that has vocal cords which vibrate to produce sound. This air then passes through our mouth. Changes in the shape of our vocal tract and the movement of our articulators (e.g., mouth, lips, palate) change the sounds we say.

Many parts of our body are used to produce speech sounds. The brain coordinates our stomach muscles, lungs, voice box, tongue, teeth, lips, and nose to produce over 40 distinct sounds. Speech sounds differ based on three primary methods of production: place, manner, and voicing.

Place of production includes: bilabial and labiodental (sounds shaped by the lips such as "b" and "f"), alveolar ridge (articulators behind the top front teeth such as "l"), palatal (soft palate such as "sh"), and velar (hard palate such as "k" and "g").

Manner of production includes: stops (sounds produced when airflow is completely stopped and then released such as "b" or "k"), fricatives (sounds produced with partial obstruction and friction such as "f" or "v"), affricates (stop and fricative qualities such as "ch" and "j"), nasals (sound produced with air through the nose such as "m" and "n"), and semivowels, liquids, and glides (i.e., sounds similar but distinct from vowels such as "y," "w," "l," and "r").

Voicing is whether the vocal folds vibrate ("b" or "d") or do not vibrate (e.g., "p" or "t") (Creaghead et al., 1989).

What If My Child Has Difficulty Saying Spech Sounds?

According to ASHA, many children experience difficulty when attempting to produce clear and intelligible speech sounds. When a child has an articulation disorder, he or she has difficulty making certain sounds. These sounds may be left off, added, changed, or distorted, which makes it hard for people to understand the child. Omitting or changing speech sounds is common when young children are learning language. Incorrect articulation becomes a concern when it continues past the age when most children are expected to produce specific sounds correctly. Please click the two links below for a bell curve of typical acquisition and other developmental skills pertaining to typical speech and language development:

Articulation Acquisition

ASHA Speech Sound Disorders