Articulation In Children

To begin with, it is important to always remember that learning to produce proper speech sounds in words and phrases is a gradual process that demands adequate time. Speech sounds develop naturally, along with other signs of normal growth during the stages of infancy until a child's seventh or eighth year. Children develop speech abilities at different rates and ages. Firstly, babies begin by playing with sounds, then babble. This babble develops as children listen and imitate people around them. Undoubtedly, at the beginning, the majority of young children will find difficulty in differentiating speech sounds, as a consequence they will certainly be prone to making errors when mastering a wide range of sounds, however; a Speech sound disorder

On the phonetic level, sounds can be omitted, added, distorted or substituted. These are the four prominent signs of Articulation Disorders and their most common examples any young child in possession of Articulation Disorder will apparently encounter. Firstly, substitution, which is the replacement of one certain sound for another, often with a similar place or manner of articulation, such as, substituting the r sound in the word rabbit with a w sound and saying (wabbit) instead. Secondly, addition, which depends on inserting an extra sound or sounds within a word; such as the addition of the 'uh' sound in (puhlane) when actually trying to say plane. Thirdly, there is omission, which is the act of deleting certain sounds and not producing them; such as saying (cu) instead of cup, or (poon) for

There are several various levels of severity of phonological disorder that range from a speech that is entirely not understandable, even to a child's immediate family members, to a speech that can almost be comprehended by everyone, regardless of some sounds that are slightly mispronounced. Moreover, Phonological Disorder is sorted into three categories either according to structural problems in any of the main articulators; such as in the tongue or the roof of the mouth or according to neurological hardships that are associated with the muscles of the mouth that do not provide the child with sufficient fine motor control over the muscles to create all speech sounds or according to slight brain abnormalities, that cause immature development of the neurological