Speech Sound Disorder: Articulation and Phonology Concerns

Introduction:

Some children bear challenges in voicing out certain letters and sound like ‘s,’ ‘k,’ ‘l,’ etc., Also, they do not comprehend the absolute distinction between the resonances. It is normal, yet it must be a concern when they have challenges with speech inappropriate for their age. They are more likely to fall under speech sound disorder. In fact, speech sound disorder is the most common form of communication disorder. About eight to nine percent of the world’s younger children have this condition. Males are more likely to have this condition than females, as per gender predilection.

What Is Speech Sound Disorder?

Speech sound disorder is a disorder described as the difficulty in utilizing and producing sounds, words, and phonemes in the right way. It is a type of communication disorder. Children with this disorder have trouble making sounds or speaking words. The children usually fall above the age of eight and struggle in reading, speaking, and writing. This would eventually reflect in their daily performances and academic events.

What Are the Types of Speech Sound Disorders?

Disparate others, children with speech sound disorders have speech and language adversities concerned with age. Speech sound disorders are classified into two chief types and incorporate other types of speech disorders.

• Articulation Disorders: It is also known as phonetic disorders that rely on the difficulty in learning and generating certain phonemes like ‘s,’ ‘r,’ or ‘i’. This is due to improper placement and movement of the articulators such as lip, throat, teeth, or hard palate.

• Phonemic Disorders: These are also known for phonological disorders characterized by impairment in recognizing and producing sounds. For instance, the child presents phoneme collapse having a hard time discriminating sounds like ‘k’ and ‘t.’

• Mixed Speech Sound Disorders: A few children might have difficulties in both articulation and phonemics.

• Disfluency: It refers to the break or interruption in fluency while communicating. It includes lengthening, blinking, cluttering, or stuttering of the speech.

• Voice Disorder: These includeraspiness, altered pitch, voice break, loud or empathetic voice, and nasal sounds.

• Apraxia: It is a disorder with deficits in the proper motor functioning of sounds.

• Residual Errors: In some cases, speech sound disorders persist until adolescence. This particular condition is known as residual errors.

What Causes Speech Sound Disorder?

Speech sound disorder does not depend on a sole precise cause. All the more, some children may get the condition without reason, and this occurs as a result of an issue in speech development. Nevertheless, researchers have identified the succeeding factors attributable to the development of speech sound disorder.

• Children with a family history of speech disorders are more likely to develop.

• Socioeconomic status would interfere with the development of speech skills.

• Brain injury or trauma can result in speech and sound impairment by causing damage to the brain nerves.

• Complications during labor, such as premature or low pound weight.

• Prenatal illnesses and infections of the mother could affect the child’s speech.

• Developmental, genetic, or neurological disorders could coincide with speech sound disorders.

• Thinking disability.

Who Is at Risk of Speech Sound Disorder?

In addition to the causative factors, several conditions have high risks of speech sound disorder.

• Persistent ear infections.

• Down syndrome.

• Cleft palate, cleft lip, and other abnormalities.

• Hearing loss.

• Autism.

• Cerebral palsy.

• Habits such as thumb-sucking or pacifying.

• General illnesses.

What Are the Symptoms of Speech Sound Disorder?

The child encountering speech sound challenges fails to use and produce the sounds exactly. They either lack the ability or have an underlying illness. Therefore, the child has the following botherations while speaking.

• Blinks often.

• Halts and delays.

• Breathlessness.

• Stuttering.

• Jerking the head.

• Drawing out the phrases.

• Unusual tension.

• Nervousness.

• Embarrassment.

• Quality of husky and croaky.

• Alteration in the voice pitch and pace.

Besides, a child with speech sound disorders has difficulties sequencing the sounds in a word. So, it is represented in four distinct categories.

• Omission: Bypasses a sound in the word- says ‘poon’ for ‘spoon.’

• Addition: Add an unreliable sound to a comment- says ‘kiyate’ for ‘kite.’

• Distortion: Distort sound in the word- ‘thas’ for ‘that.’

• Substitution: Switching the sounds in the word.- ‘cloth’ for ‘sloth.’

How Is Speech Sound Disorder Diagnosed?

Before moving on to diagnostic interpretations, it is essential to know certain norms put forth by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5). They are as demonstrated.

• At two years, the child may possess an intelligible speech of about 50 percent.

• At four years, the child should be utterly intelligible.

• At seven years of age, the child should generate words consistently expected for their age.

• And until eight years of age, misarticulation of challenging sounds is considered normal.

Diagnostic Criteria:

Regardless of the above, if the child has difficulties producing and discriminating sounds, then the medical care professional will diagnose the child with speech sound disorder when the diagnostic criteria of DSM-5 are met.

• The child suffers persistent difficulty producing speech sounds from the early development phase.

• The disorder affects and restricts communication.

• It interferes with a child's socialization and academic performance.

In addition, the doctor will rule out the presence of any congenital or acquired disorders, and will also analyze the speech to identify the exact phonemes and phonetics the child has difficulty in.

How Is Speech Sound Disorder Treated?

In most cases, speech sound disorders can be successfully treated as soon as it has been detected. A medical professional called a speech-language pathologist is there to help the child through speech therapies. The pathologist also aids the child in engaging in exercises and activities. The oral motor exercises enhance speech through actual guidance and repetition. Subsequently, non-speech oral activities are there to strengthen the muscles of speech. This includes brushing, oil-pulling, blowing, whistling, cheek puffing, and massages.

Conclusion:

Speech sound disorder is not the sole condition, it refers to several difficulties an individual faces with perception, motor production, speech sound representation, phonological terms, and segmentation of the speech sounds. So, the child has trouble pronouncing or saying several words and sounds. At times, the condition itself is self-limiting. Nevertheless, In another way, the challenges and hindrances the child bears while speaking can be sorted out and treated effectively to a great extent. So, it’s not a severe disorder to worry about, as the condition is relatively easy to manage with appropriate exercises and care.