Articulation is the ways in which our mouths move in order to help us make sounds. Individuals with a hard time articulating their words can find themselves frustrated when communicating with others. Luckily, Speech Language Pathology can help!
How Can a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) Help with Articulation?
An SLP is responsible for evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of a variety of communication disorders. Among those are articulation disorders.
What is an Articulation Disorder?
An articulation disorder is just when your child has difficulty saying some of their sounds. The sounds might be dropped from words, replaced with other sounds, or they could be distorted.
How can having difficulty with articulation affect my child?
- Difficulty with literacy both with reading and spelling due to mislearning the letter sounds may be present.
- Confidence can be affected if the child feels insecure about their speech.
- They may talk around words instead of saying them.
- Social difficulties
- They may find it hard to make friends if they are having a hard time being understood by their friends.
- Difficulty with being understood in a variety of contexts
When should I seek help?
If you are deciding whether or not your child needs some support in the area of articulation there are a couple things to consider.
1. How Well Can You Understand Them?
How well can you or the people who do not live with them understand them? We typically follow the rule of quarters for determining how well the child is understood.
- At 1 year of age your child should be understood around 25% of the time
- At 2 years of age your child should be understood around 50% of the time
- At 3 years of age your child should be understood around 75% of the time
- By 4 years old your child should be almost 100% understood.
2. Look at a Speech Chart
There are also speech charts available so you know at what age your child should master their sounds.
A good rule of thumb is that by 6 years of age your child’s speech should sound very similar to an Adult’s production of all of their words.
CWJR has taken strict safety and cleaning precautions to decrease the spread of COVID-19. Our clinic is open and available to provide thearpy. If coming into our clinic is not feasible for you right now, we are also offering appointments through telehealth. Call today at 586-323-2957 to schedule your FREE 30 minute screening.
Written by: Sarah Coulter, MS CF-SLP
