Speech Sound Production

Articulation is how kids make the sounds in words so they can be understood. An articulation disorder occurs when a child has trouble making certain speech sounds correctly because of how the sounds are formed in the mouth. This means they may have difficulty placing their tongue, lips, or jaw in the right position. Children might replace a sound with another (e.g., “w” for “r”), omit a sound, distort a sound, or add extra sounds in a word. Speech therapy helps children practice sounds, learn the correct mouth movements, and use them in words and sentences so their speech becomes clearer and easier to understand.

Phonology is how kids learn the rules for using sounds in words so they can be understood. A phonological disorder happens when a child has trouble learning these sound patterns, which can affect many words, not just individual sounds. Children may use phonological processes or predictable sound patterns, that make speech easier for them but harder to understand. For example, they might leave off the last sound in a word (“ca” for cat), swap one sound for another (“tat” for cat), or simplify blends of sounds (“pane” for plane). Speech therapy helps children learn the correct sound patterns so their words are clearer and easier to understand. 

Apraxia of speech is a motor speech disorder that makes it hard to plan and coordinate the movements needed to say sounds, syllables, and words correctly. In children, this is called childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Kids with CAS know what they want to say, but their brain has trouble telling their mouth how to move to produce the right sounds. This can make speech inconsistent, with sounds left out, repeated, or distorted, and sometimes words are very hard to understand. Speech therapy helps children practice planning and sequencing the movements for speech so their words become clearer and more understandable.