Articulation Disorders

Articulation disorders are speech disorders defined as the inability to correctly produce speech sounds (phonemes). Children with articulation disorders have difficulty producing and using age-appropriate speech sounds. It is possible that a child has speech delays, but not language delays.

Different types of articulation disorders include:

• Distortions: The child slightly changes sounds, which may seem like the addition of noise, or a change in voicing (e.g. says “filsh” for “fish”).
   
• Omissions: The child deletes certain sounds, such as entire syllables or classes of sounds (e.g. says “fi” for “fish”).
   
• Additions: The child adds an extra sound to another which is already produced correctly (e.g. says “fisha” for “fish”).
   
• Substitutions: The child substitutes one sound for another, often with similar articulation (e.g. says “fith” for “fish”).

When learning to speak, all young children mispronounce words. As they grow older and their articulation skills develop, their pronunciation usually becomes clearer. Find out more about specific pronunciation goals by age. 

Although most children develop mature articulation skills and are able to pronounce all sounds accurately, some children may exhibit inaccurate or distorted production of one or more sounds. These children may need speech therapy in order to correct these distortions.

Articulation disorders may be caused by a variety of factors, such as hearing loss, oral-motor problems and abnormalities in the structure of the mouth and other speech muscles.

Support and reinforcement of therapy practices, both at home and in the classroom, are essential to the success of articulation disorder treatment.