RESOURCES
SPEECH SOUND DISORDERS
Children make mistakes as they learn to say new words. If mistakes continue to occur after a certain age it is considered to be a speech sound disorder. Speech sound disorders include problems with articulation (making speech sounds) or phonological processes (speech sound patterns).
​
Speech sound disorders can make a child difficult to understand. An easy way for parents to know if their child may have a speech disorder is to ask an unfamiliar listener how much they understand your child. A four year old child should be understood by an unfamiliar listener nearly 100% of the time.
What are signs of an articulation disorder?
​
Some children have trouble producing specific sounds like the “t” or “s” sounds; this is called an articulation disorder. Children may mispronounce a sound by substituting it, omitting it, distorting it, or adding extra sounds.
​
Children naturally mispronounce speech sounds as they learn to speak, such as using a “w” sound for a “r’ sound (e.g. “wake” for “rake”). However, if these errors continue after a certain age, the child may have an articulation disorder. To see the age range that most children master each speech sound refer to the Speech Sound Development below.
Speech Sound Development
​
These are the ages in which 90% of children master consonant sounds:
​
AGE
speech sound
2 years
​
​
​
3 years
​
​
​
4 years
​
​
​
5 years
​
​
​
6 years
​
​
​
7 years
/m/ /p/
/b/ /d/ /k/ /n/ /w/ /h/ /f/
​
​
/t/ /y/ /sp/ /st/ /ch/ /j/
​
​
​
/s/ /sh/ /L/ /z/ /bl/
​
​
/v/ /r/ /br/ /gr/
​
​
/th/
Goldman, R., & Fristoe, M. (2015). GFTA-3: Goldman Fristoe 3 Test of Articulation. PsychCorp.
​
What are signs of a phonological disorder?
​
Children that have difficulties producing multiple sounds or have a pattern of speech errors, such as leaving off the final sounds of words (saying “go” for “goat”), may have a phonological disorders.
​
Phonological disorders can make speech difficult to understand and it requires a different treatment approach than articulation disorders. Some phonological errors are common at certain ages. To learn more about phonological processes errors and their expected age of elimination refer to Phonological Disorder chart below.
Phonological Disorders & Age of Elimination
Shipley, K. G., & McAfee, J. G. (2015). Assessment in speech-language pathology: A resource manual. Nelson Education.
