Understanding Speech Disorders

As parents, we treasure every moment with our little ones, relishing their laughter and cherishing their unique quirks. But what happens when we can't understand their words? It's a heart-wrenching puzzle that leaves us feeling lost and desperate for answers.

We're diving into the world of speech disorders — what are they? what causes speech disorders and how to work on it.

What are the 3 main types of speech disorders?

1. Articulation Disorder:

An articulation disorders focus on sound distortion or substitutions, such as a lisp.

2. Phonological Disorder:

Unlike articulation disorders that focus on specific sounds, phonological disorders involve decoding the patterns of sound errors and are rule based. These patters of sounds can affect more than one sound and they are done with predicability. For example, your child might say “cown” for “clown” and “fower” for “flower”. This pattern is called cluster reduction since they are eliminating the ‘l’ from the consonant blend cl and fl.

3. Apraxia:

Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), often referred to as apraxia, is a motor speech disorder that affects a child's ability to plan and execute the precise movements required for speech production. Unlike articulation and phonological disorders, children with apraxia have difficulty coordinating the muscle movements necessary to produce speech sounds, even though they may understand language well.

Why do speech sound disorders occur?

It could be a combination of factors— ranging from the natural quirks of speech development, sometimes there’s no known cause, and other times the cause it known, such as potential hearing issues, structural peculiarities in the mouth, underdeveloped muscle development in the mouth, or motor and/or neurological issues.

How do you work on improving speech disorders?

First you have to find out the reason why & determine the sounds, patterns or approach to use. There are a range of factors to consider when working on speech sound disorders including but not limited to; selecting sounds which are in order of developmental acquisition, complexity of sound, stimulability of sound — how easy or difficult is it for the child to say the sound in isolation, what sound will make the biggest impact on their ability to be understood, and client specific factors such as producing a sound in one name.

Once, you’ve determined what you are going to work on, focus on increasing complexity of production; sound in isolation, consonant vowel combination, sound in all positions of words, sound in phrases, sentences, and lastly in conversation.

Remember, the help of talented speech-language pathologists are key to unlocking a world of clear and confident communication for these young adventurers.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child’s speech, contact Northport Speech Therapy for a free consultation.

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