A speech sound disorder is an umbrella term for a communication disorder in which a child has difficulty pronouncing words or sounds correctly. 

 

Most children make mistakes as they learn to say new words and these are considered normal errors but a child who does not say sounds by their expected ages may have a speech sound disorder. Most children have clear speech by the time they are around 5 years old.

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Speech sound disorders can be categorised as follows:

 

• Articulation describes how we pronounce sounds using the different parts of our mouths.  If a child has an articulation disorder, they have difficulty pronouncing a particular sound clearly.  This also includes frontal or lateral lisps.

 

• Phonology describes how we use speech sounds within our spoken language.  If a child has a phonological disorder, they use consistent patterns in their speech which results in rule based errors that often affect several sounds resulting in the child being difficult to understand.  A common example would be a child who is using the process of ‘stopping’ which can affect the fricative sounds ‘s’ ‘z’ ‘f’ ‘v’ and ‘sh’ so that the words sock, zoo, fish, van and shoe may be produced as ‘dock’ ‘doo’ ‘bish’ ‘ban’ and ‘du’.  

 

• Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia (DVD) or Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder.  The child has difficulty with making and co-ordination the precise motor movements that are needed in order to produce clear speech with their mouths, in the absence of any nerve or muscle damage.  They may also have general difficulty controlling their lips, tongue and palate, which can result in problems with other oral movements such as controlling saliva and eating.  Rarely, the child may also have difficulties co-ordinating other general body movements.

 

• Orofacial Myofunctional Disorders (OMDs) are disorders that arise from a changed structure of the face and mouth.  These differences can interfere with swallowing and speech as well as the appearance and growth of the face and mouth.  Tongue thrust is probably the most common OMD, in which the tongue lies too far forward during rest and moves forward in an exaggerated way during speech and swallowing.  These disorders can be caused by dummy use, thumb sucking, mouth breathing or enlarged tonsils and/or adenoids.  They often result in lateral lisping of speech sounds s, z, sh, ch and j.

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These difficulties can exist on their own, but they often co-occur.

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A thorough assessment from a Speech and Language Therapist will determine the nature of your child's difficulties, and therefore which therapy approaches they will benefit from.