Common Speech Disorders
Articulation: An articulation disorder is the atypical production of speech sounds characterized by substitutions, omissions, additions, or distortions that interfere with intelligibility.
Phonology: Phonology is the study of the sound system of language, including speech sounds, speech patterns, and the rules that apply to those sounds. A phonology disorder results in errors in patterns of sounds that are no longer age appropriate. There are many phonological processes, such as:
Therapy for phonology disorders differs from traditional articulation therapy in that it targets whole patterns of speech errors to remediate more than one sound at a time.
Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Apraxia is a motor speech disorder, which is not caused by muscle weakness or paralysis. In apraxia, the child knows what they want to say, but their brain has difficulty coordinating the muscle movements involved in speech. Therapy for apraxia focuses on improving the planning, sequencing, and coordination of muscle movements needed for speech. For more information on apraxia, see www.apraxia-kids.org.
Dysarthria: A group of motor speech disorders associated with muscle paralysis or weakness. It is also associated with central or peripheral nervous system damage. In dysarthria many processes of speech are affected, including respiration, phonation, resonance, articulation, and prosody.
Fluency: A fluency disorder is the interruption of the flow of speech. Examples of interruptions include repetitions, prolongations, interjections, and blocks in speech. For more information on fluency, see www.stutteringhelp.org.
Phonology: Phonology is the study of the sound system of language, including speech sounds, speech patterns, and the rules that apply to those sounds. A phonology disorder results in errors in patterns of sounds that are no longer age appropriate. There are many phonological processes, such as:
- Cluster Reduction: Omission of speech sounds in a blend, e.g. pace/space
- Fronting: Sounds that should be made in the back of the mouth are originated in the front of the mouth, e.g. take/cake
- Final Consonant Deletion: The final consonant of a word is consistently deleted, e.g. bu/bus
- Stopping: A sound that should continue is replaced with a sound that doesn’t continue, e.g. toap/soap
Therapy for phonology disorders differs from traditional articulation therapy in that it targets whole patterns of speech errors to remediate more than one sound at a time.
Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Apraxia is a motor speech disorder, which is not caused by muscle weakness or paralysis. In apraxia, the child knows what they want to say, but their brain has difficulty coordinating the muscle movements involved in speech. Therapy for apraxia focuses on improving the planning, sequencing, and coordination of muscle movements needed for speech. For more information on apraxia, see www.apraxia-kids.org.
Dysarthria: A group of motor speech disorders associated with muscle paralysis or weakness. It is also associated with central or peripheral nervous system damage. In dysarthria many processes of speech are affected, including respiration, phonation, resonance, articulation, and prosody.
Fluency: A fluency disorder is the interruption of the flow of speech. Examples of interruptions include repetitions, prolongations, interjections, and blocks in speech. For more information on fluency, see www.stutteringhelp.org.
