Speech Disorders in Children

Articulation: An articulation disorder is when someone has difficulty producing sounds or sound sequences, such as saying "th" for "s" sounds. They may, for example, say "thun" for "sun". For a checklist of Typical Ages for Sound Acquisition Click Here. 

Phonology: A phonological disorder is when a child has difficulty learning and using rules for sounds and sound sequences, such as deleting all final the consonant on words. An example of this would be saying "ca" for "cat" and "ba" for "back".

Motor Speech Disorders: This is a communication disorder where children have a hard time saying sounds, syllables, and words. It is not caused by physical reasons, but because the brain has problems planning to move the body parts needed for speech. The child knows what he or she wants to say, but his or her brain has difficulty coordinating the muscle movements necessary to say those words. One type of motor speech disorder is Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). A child with apraxia may have inconsistent errors (especially when repeating a word), a limited number of sounds that can be made correctly, and unusual rhythm (prosody). They typically can understand more language than can be produced.

A voice disorder may be present when a child’s voice is noticeably different from others the same age and gender. They may have a harsh or hoarse-sounding voice, or a voice that is too high, low, loud or nasal. Poor voice quality may make it difficult for a child to communicate effectively and they may lose self-confidence, concerned with how other people see them. People with voice disorders often complain that their voices tire easily.