What are Articulation disorders?
Use of articulators (lips, tongue, etc.) to produce speech sounds. It also describes a person's ability to make sounds, as in "her articulation contained several errors."

When should my child be able to say each speech sound?
There is a range of development for each speech sound; however, children should be able to produce each speech sound by 8 years of age.

What are phonological processes?
Phonological processes refer to the rules children use to simplify their speech. These rules can include many sounds instead of just one and can make the child’s speech unintelligible.

Processes disappearing by the 3rd birthday:
          •   Weak syllable deletion: simplifying multi-syllable words by deleting a syllable (tel.e.phone becomes "te.phone" or
              bu.tter.fly becomes "bu.fly")
          •   Final consonant deletion: not saying the ending consonants of words (cat become "ca" or cup becomes "cu")
          •   Fronting: replacing back sounds "k" and "g" with front sounds "t" and "d" (candy becomes "tandy" or frog becomes "frod")
          •   Consonant assimilation: a consonant in a word becomes similar to another consonant in the word (bed becomes "beb"
              or thank become "gank")
          •   Final Devoicing: replacing a voiced consonant with a devoiced consonant (job becomes "jop" or mad becomes "mat")

Processes persisting after age 3:
          •   Consonant cluster reduction: reducing a consonant cluster to one consonant (blue becomes "boo" or truck becomes
              "tuck"). Should be gone by age 4.
          •   Gliding: replacing a liquid ("r" or "l") with a glide ("w" or "y") (play becomes "pway" or run becomes "won"). Should be
              gone by age 5.
          •   Stopping: stopping the airflow in a sound (soap becomes "toap" or puzzle becomes "puddle"). Depending on which sound
              is stopped, should be gone between ages 3 and 5.
                    •   Stopping of "v" and "z" should be gone by 3 ½ years
                    •   Stopping of "sh" "j" "ch" should be gone by 4 ½ years
                    •   Stopping of "th" should be gone by 5 years
                    •   Stopping of "f" and "s" should be gone by 3 years
          •   Epenthesis: inserting an extra sound into a word (blue becomes "balue" or color becomes "clolor")

Achieve Hearing & Rehabilitation helps patients overcome their articulation and phonological processing disorders. If you or someone you know demonstrates any signs and symptoms of an articulation and phonological processing disorder. please call us at 972-608-0416 to discuss how Achieve can help.

Achieve Hearing & Rehabilitation is a speech and hearing clinic in Plano, Texas. We offer speech language pathology and audiological services for children and adults of all ages. Achieve is in-network with Aetna, Cigna, BlueCrossBlueShield, Medicare, and United Healthcare. We can help obtain information about your policy to determine if services are covered under. Please call us at 972-608-0416.