Articulation is the process by which sounds, syllables and words are formed when your tongue, jaw, teeth, lips and palate alter the air stream coming from the vocal folds (cords).

 

 

A person has an articulation problem when he or she produces sounds, syllables or words incorrectly.  Frequently, listeners do not understand what is being said and most often pay more attention to the way the words sound rather than to what they mean.

 

Click here for a list of common mis-articulations in a child's early speech development. 

 

 

An articulation problem sometimes sounds like baby talk because many very young children do mispronounce sounds, syllables, and words.  Words which sound "cute" when mispronounced by young children greatly interfere with the communication of older children and even adults.  Older children may have so many severe errors that their articulation problems are very different from "baby talk."

 

 

 

 

Speech sounds develop in a child's speech over time, with some speech sounds not fully emerging in his/her speech fully until the age of 7.  Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) evaluate a child's speech sound production to determine if error sounds are age-appropriate.  Articulation disorders occur when a child incorrectly produces a specific sound (s, l, r) that he/she should be able to produce given his/her age.  In addition, SLPs evaluate the child's speech errors to determine if the patterns indicate a phonological disorder.  Phonological disorders occur when a child's rule system for speech sound production does not match the adult rule system.  In these instances, the child is attempting to simplify speech when producing adult words. 

 

If an articulation or phonological disorder is diagnosed, the SLP assists the child in learning the correct production of error sounds through a variety of therapeutic means.