What are Articulation Disorders?

There are 3 basic types of speech impairments: articulation disorders, fluency disorders, and voice disorders.

We will be looking: Articulation Disorders.

This disorder impacts how speech sounds are produced when communicating, impacting the speaker’s intelligibility. These are best remembered as the acronym S.O.D.A. which stands for Substitution, Omission, Distortion, and Addition.

Examples of a Substitution include: substituting one sound for another (e.g., saying wed for red), or leaving out sounds (e.g., nana instead of banana). Children, including adults (if not treated at a young age) have difficulty learning sound systems of the language, thus not understanding that changing sounds can change meanings. This gives rise to consistent error patterns (called phonological processes).

An example would be: substituting sounds made in the back of the mouth (g, k) for sounds made in the front of the mouth (d, t) so that tab becomes cab and dot becomes got. Another pattern is replacing unvoiced sounds (e.g., p, t, k, th) with voiced sounds (e.g., b, d, g), such that the becomes de.

Examples of omissions/deletions—certain sounds are omitted or deleted (e.g., "cu" for "cup" and "poon" for "spoon").

When an individual cannot produce or distort an age-expected sound/s, it draws attention away from the speaker's message. The most common example of distortion is the “s” sound, which can produce a lisp.

Examples of additions—one or more extra sounds are added or inserted into a word (e.g., "buhlack" for "black", “lightuhning” for “lightning”).

Treatment:

·        Teaching sound system rules and the link between sounds and word meanings.

·        Practice identifying and producing word pairs that differ by only one sound, in order to

learn these rules.

Receptive/Expressive Language is also something to take into consideration as it refers to the ability to understand words and language, while expressive language refers to the use of words, sentences, gestures and writing to convey meaning and messages to others. An expressive language disorder is one in which a child or adult has difficulty conveying their meaning or messages to others, while a receptive language disorder is one in which a child or adult has difficulty understanding and processing the messages/information they receive from others.

Symptoms of Receptive Language Disorders

•  Difficulty understanding what other people have said
• Struggle in following directions that are spoken to them
• Grapple with organizing their thoughts
• Find it difficult when answering questions

Symptoms of Expressive Language Disorders

• A difficulty in putting words together into sentences, or their sentences may be simple and short with incorrect word order
• Struggle to find the right words when talking, and often use filler words such as “um”
• A below the level vocabulary in comparison to other children or adults the same age
• Leaving words out of sentences when talking
• An overuse of certain phrases over and over again, and repeat (echo) parts or all of questions
• Misusing verb tenses (e.g. past, present, future)

 Treating Receptive/Expressive Language Disorders

·        Targeting specific language skills identified as areas of need such as vocabulary,

auditory comprehension, or formulation.

I have developed a course which will assist in correcting Articulation Disorders - Substitution, Omission, Distortion, and Addition, including Receptive/Expressive Language Disorders. 

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