What is articulation?
Articulation is the formation of speech sounds. Articulation development is fascinating! Our articulators include the tongue, lips, upper and lower teeth, soft and hard palate, pharyngeal wall and the glottis! That is a mouthful! So what does it mean? There is a lot of behind the scenes work (the brain talking to the articulators) that goes on to get all of articulators to move where they need to in order to say what we want to say. Each sound is produced in a unique way and requires all the articulators to move together just right. It is crazy how much work goes into getting out a sound, a word and a then a full utterance. I find it amazing how we sequence several sounds together to make a word, then words to make a sentence, which gives us the beauty of language! Communication is such an amazing part of life.
Back to articulation, sometimes, kids might have difficulty getting all of these pieces to fall in line, which is where a speech-language pathologist can come in handy. Sometimes they might not know how to produce the sound (articulation disorder). Sometimes, they might have learned a rule (incorrectly) thinking they should produce a “t/d” in place of a “k/g”, this is called fronting and know as a phonological disorder. Both impact an individuals ability to be understood. The development of speech sounds does not all happen at once. A one year old will not have all of their sounds. Neither will a 5 year old. Articulation development is a long process and not all sounds come at once.
As a trained speech-language pathologist (SLP), a list of words and/or pictures can be presented to a child which allows the SLP to analyze which sounds a child has developed and which sounds a child has not developed. Sound errors can be analyzed for patterns which can guide treatment plans. Sometimes, a child may have not developed sounds, but due to their age, it’s OK! This means the sound errors are developmentally appropriate and may come on their own. Sometimes, the child should have the sounds at their age, and a speech therapist can help with this! A therapist can identify sounds in error, create a therapy plan, and help your child say their sounds and reach their communication potential!
If you are curious if your child is producing age appropriate sounds, contact Berry Speech Academy today for a FREE speech screening!
