Articulation refers to when a child or adult has trouble pronouncing various sounds. For example, they may delete sounds (e.g. saying “ca” for “cat”). They may also substitute sounds (e.g. “dat” for “mat”), distort sounds (e.g. thork for fork) or add sounds to words (e.g. “rhed” for “red”).
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As a parent, you once adore the "baby talk" your child adopts. Why wouldn't you? It's cute and reaffirms that your child is still your cute, cuddly little baby. However, if your 9-year old is still making articulation speech errors such as "wabbit" instead of "rabbit", it may be important to consider articulation therapy!
In general, as a child's cognitive abilities develop their speech will also develop. When your child first begins to communicate, it is common for them to make errors within their speech. This is the way in which they learn and is no cause for concern. However, by the age of 3, unfamiliar people should understand about 75% of your child's speech, and by the age of 4 your child should be able to speak in general, with few to no pronunciation issues – be understood 100% of the time.
An articulation disorder usually has a range of factors that contribute to your child's diagnosis. These include:
If your child has displayed or is known to have any of the following, then they may be more prone to developing an articulation disorder. It is important to note that during development, each child develops at their own pace. As a result, if your child is showing some signs of articulation in early development, this is no cause for concern. However, it may be best to check them with a doctor to ensure any potential disorders can be treated.
With all language disorders in children it is crucial that treatment begins as early as possible. As children grow, they continue to develop new cognitive pathways for speech and language which become more difficult to change later in life. SpeechAim offers therapy for children with speech impediments to help improve their language abilities from an early age. Having your child in therapy for their speech impediment can ensure great benefits for later in life, whether it be social interactions, professional settings, educational opportunities etc. Most importantly, our trained experts at SpeechAim, will help instill a new sense of confidence in your child's ability to produce speech and communicate with others.
SpeechAim will provide a dedicated language therapist who will work with your child one-on-one to build their speech sounds. By working one-on-one your child will have the opportunity to develop their speech and language abilities in a safe and relaxed environment. Our speech-language pathologists will begin by assessing the child for different sounds, including both consonants and vowels. These sounds occur in both words and connected speech.
Your dedicated speech-language pathologist at SpeechAim will establish goals and appropriate targets based on your child's articulation of certain speech sounds. This treatment plan will be developed with considedration of what is developmentally appropriate for your child.
A traditional articulation hierarchy is used for articulation therapy, and works with your child until the sound is able to be used correctly in every day speech.
If you have any questions for queries about our sessions, please contact us directly via email or our contact number. Our friendly staff will get back you to as soon as possible to resolve any questions that you may have.