Vedanta Speech & Hearing Healthcare

Vedanta Speech & Hearing Healthcare

Leading Pediatric & Adult Hearing and Speech Therapy Healthcare

Articulation disorders are often developmental disorders in which sounds are produced incorrectly or inadequately compared to normative standards for a child’s age. Articulation disorders may occur as an isolated problem or as part of other delays or disorders, including language disorders, cognitive impairments, neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy or brain injury, and orofacial anomalies such as cleft lip and cleft palate. Four primary types of articulation errors can be made on any one sound: Substitutions, Omissions, Distortions, and Additions (S.O.D.A.). Articulation errors can occur in the initial, medial, or final position of words.

A sound substitution is the replacement of one standard speech sound by another (a standard speech sound can be represented by a phonetic symbol). When a child has a sound substitution, she produces a wrong sound in place of the correct sound, such as “thoup” for soup (a frontal lisp), “shoup” for soup (a lateral lisp), or “wed” for red (/w/ for /r/). Sound substitutions are probably the most common type of articulation errors among children.

A sound omission is the absence of a speech sound where one should occur in a word—for example, “k-on” for crayon, or “ba” for box. Some children will have both a substitution and an omission in the same word—for example, “sketty” for spaghetti, where there is an omission of the /p/ and schwa sound /ә/, and substitution of /k/ for /g/.

A sound distortion is a sound that does not have a phonetic symbol to represent the sound that is produced in place of the intended sound, such as a lateral lisp that is not a clear “sh” sound, or a distorted /r/ sound that cannot be clearly represented by a phonetic symbol. Sound distortions are commonly heard in children who have neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy or traumatic brain injuries when the articulators are weak and cannot make rapid or precise movements.

Diagnosis and Treatment

If you’re concerned that your child has either an articulation disorder or a phonological disorder, you should start by scheduling an evaluation with a Speech Language Pathologist(SLP).
During that evaluation, the therapist will likely talk to your child to estimate how easy their speech can be understood and take note of any sound errors present. The therapist will also likely administer a test that might include showing your child pictures and asking him or her to name them.
The Speech Therapist will be looking for articulation errors and phonological patterns to determine which type of speech sound disorder is present.
For example, a child having trouble articulating the “S” sound might work on looking in a mirror and keeping their tongue behind their teeth as they make the sound. If a child uses the phonological process of weak syllable deletion, he or she might practice clapping while slowly saying each syllable in a longer word like “bicycle”.

Diagnosed by a speech-language pathologist (SLP) through standardized assessments and observation.
Treated with speech therapy, which focuses on teaching the correct production of sounds through modeling, repetition, and practice.

Easy Steps To Get Our Services

Don’t Wonder If You Or Your Loved Ones Have Hearing Loss Or Speech Disorder; Find Out For Sure With Advanced Tests. Vedanta Speech And Hearing Healthcare Is Ready To Help You Or Your Loved One To Live Better. It All Starts With An Honest Conversation About Your Hearing Loss or Speech Disorder And a Test.