Speech Production
When Speech Is Difficult To Understand
Speech and phonological disorders can have no known cause or can be caused by motor based disorders (e.g. dysarthria and childhood apraxia of speech), structural disorders (e.g. cleft palate), syndromes (e.g. Down) and sensory conditions (e.g. hearing loss).
Speech sound disorder: An overall term that categorizes issues with perception, production and/or the phonological representation of sounds and segments that result in reduced speech intelligibility.
Phonological Disorder: Children that are diagnosed with phonological disorders when a child has difficulty producing entire classes of speech sounds vs. individual sound errors. They are considered to be at a greater risk for later reading and learning disabilities. Early identification and treatment is key.
Articulation Disorder: Children that are diagnosed with an articulation disorder has difficulty producing individual speech sounds beyond the age that is considered to be developmentally appropriate.
Any child that is frustrated because their speech production is not understood by others should be screened by a speech language pathologist. Adults with concerns about a child's speech production should also contact us for a consultation to determine if the child's speech is following developmental acquisition or if there is need for an evaluation.