Speech Sound Disorders Info
What are 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).
Can adults have speech sound disorders?
Adults can also have speech sound disorders. Some adults
continue to have problems from childhood, while others may develop speech
problems after a stroke or head injury.
To learn more about adult speech disorders, see apraxia of speech and dysarthria.
What are some signs of an articulation disorder?
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.
Young children often make speech errors. For instance, many
young children sound like they are making a "w" sound for an
"r" sound (e.g., "wabbit" for "rabbit") or may
leave sounds out of words, such as "nana" for "banana." The
child may have an articulation disorder if these errors continue past the
expected age.
Not all sound substitutions and omissions are speech errors.
Instead, they may be related to a feature of a dialect or accent. For example,
speakers of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) may use a "d"
sound for a "th" sound (e.g., "dis" for "this").
This is not a speech sound disorder, but rather one of the phonological
features of AAVE.
To see the age range during which most children develop each sound,
visit Talking Child's speech
chart.
What are some signs
of a phonological disorder?
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").
Another rule of speech is that some words start with two
consonants, such as broken or spoon. When children don't follow this rule and
say only one of the sounds ("boken" for broken or "poon"
for spoon), it is more difficult for the listener to understand the child.
While it is common for young children learning speech to leave one of the
sounds out of the word, it is not expected as a child gets older. If a child
continues to demonstrate such cluster reduction, he or she may have a
phonological process disorder.
To see the ages at which phonological processes should
disappear, go to Elimination of
Phonological Processes, and for descriptions of the common processes
see Phonological Processes.
How are speech sound disorders diagnosed?
A speech-language pathologist (SLP) is the professional that
evaluates children or adults with speech and language difficulties. The SLP
listens to the person and may use a formal articulation test to record sound
errors. An oral mechanism examination is also done to determine whether the
muscles of the mouth are working correctly. The SLP may recommend speech
treatment if the sound is not appropriate for the child's age or if it is not a
feature of a dialect or accent. For children, the SLP often also evaluates
their language development to determine overall communication functioning.
What if I speak more than one language? Is my accent a
speech sound disorder?
An accent is the unique way that speech is pronounced by a group
of people speaking the same language. Accents are a natural part of spoken
languages. It is important to realize that no accent is better than another.
Accents are NOT a speech or language disorder. An SLP can work
on accent modification services
if a client wishes to reduce or modify his or her accent.
SLPs
provide treatment to improve articulation of individual sounds or reduce errors
in production of sound patterns.
Articulation treatment may involve demonstrating how to produce
the sound correctly, learning to recognize which sounds are correct and
incorrect, and practicing sounds in different words. Phonological process
treatment may involve teaching the rules of speech to individuals to help them
say words correctly.
What causes speech sound disorders?
Many speech sound disorders occur without a known cause. A child
may not learn how to produce sounds correctly or may not learn the rules of
speech sounds on his or her own. These children may have a problem with speech
development, which does not always mean that they will simply outgrow it by
themselves. Many children do develop speech sounds over time but those who do
not often need the services of an SLP to learn correct speech sounds.
Some speech sound errors can result from physical problems, such
as:
- developmental
disorders (e.g.,autism)
- genetic
syndromes (e.g., Down syndrome)
- hearing loss
- illness
- neurological
disorders (e.g., cerebral palsy)
How
common are speech sound disorders?
Children who experience frequent ear infections when they were
young are at risk for speech sound disorders if the ear infections were
accompanied by hearing loss.
Speaking with an accent and/or dialect is not a speech sound
disorder.
In young children learning to speak, speech sound errors are
quite common. In fact, very few children develop speech without producing
errors early on. By the age of 8, children should be able to produce all sounds
in English correctly.
What do SLPs do when working with individuals with speech
sound disorder?
The Preferred Practice Patterns for the Profession of Speech-Language
Pathology includes sections on speech sound assessment (section 15)
and speech sound intervention (section 16). These sections describe the typical
clinical process followed by an SLP in these areas.
https://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/SpeechSoundDisorders/
https://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/SpeechSoundDisorders/
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