Does Your Child Have an Articulation Disorder?
Welcome to our last blog entry for the month of June. At South Florida Speech Solutions it has been a pleasure informing the South Florida community of the many speech disorders out there. It’s time to eliminate the stigma that everyone with a speech disorder falls under the same category. There’s a number of speech and language disorders and they’re all treated differently. Our goal is to find out which one is affecting a new patient coming in and figuring out the best course of action to help them.
Today we are going to talk about one of those many speech and language challenges: Articulation Disorder. Articulation Disorder is defined as a speech disorder in which a person has difficulty articulating different types of sounds. A person with it will often substitute one sound for another resulting in slurred speech. Young children may show signs of articulation disorder, but they may not always have it and most will literally outgrow it. If the problem persists after a certain age however, that child may have articulation disorder and treatment will be necessary to correct it.
A common example for this disorder is the misuse of sound of the letter R. R is the most difficult sound to master for a child diagnosed with articulation disorder. A child aged 5-6 years old will make errors such as saying “wabbit” instead of “rabbit” or “buhd” instead of “bird”. Once you go to a licensed Speech Pathologist, like the ones here at South Florida Speech Solutions, treatment can begin to correct said impediment. Therapy may target motor skills, which help to form and vocalize certain sounds.
So what causes articulation disorder? Some of the causes can be obvious. An overbite, a cleft palate, hearing loss, cerebral palsy. Some other times it can be unclear and could form on its own. Our voices are our tools to communicate with the outside world and when muscles in our throat and mouth don’t develop at the same speed as the rest of us problems like articulation disorder may occur.
If you suspect articulation disorder in your child, bring them in for a free screening. The earlier we begin to work on correcting the problem the better (and sometimes quicker) the child will overcome their speech disorder. You are not alone, as the saying goes: it takes a village to raise a child. South Florida Speech Solutions has your back and we welcome new patients and assist them to better themselves.
Thank you South Florida for welcoming us into your homes with another month of blogs in the bag. We hope you’re learning more about the complex world of Speech and Language Pathology. Don’t hesitate to call us and have a great rest of your month, see you in July!