Speech is the physical production of sounds and sequences of sounds that make up words and sentences. It is made up of sounds that can be detected by the human ear and is highly complex. When children are developing speech they may make mistakes with the sounds they use. There is a typical order in which each speech sound develops and a range of ages when a child should be able to say each sound correctly. A speech sound delay is when speech is developing in a normal sequential pattern but occurring later than is typical. A speech disorder is when mistakes are not “typical” sound errors or are unusual sound errors or error patterns. Speech sound delays and disorders include problems with articulation (i.e. making sounds) and/or phonological processes (i.e. sound error patterns). A child may have sound errors in their speech which are not considered a speech problem because they are part of the dialect or accent to which the child is exposed.
Phonological Process | Description | Age it occurs |
---|---|---|
Final Consonant Deletion | Final consonants are omitted from words (e.g. ‘hat’ becomes ‘ha_’). | |
Voicing | Sounds made with no voice are replaced with voiced sounds (e.g. ‘car’ becomes ‘dar’, ‘tea’ becomes ‘dea’). | 2-2.11 years |
Syllable re-duplication | Complete or partial repetition of a stressed syllable (e.g. ‘bottle’ becomes ‘bo bo’). | |
Weak syllable deletion | Non-stressed syllables are deleted from words (e.g. ‘elephant’ becomes ‘ephant’). | 2-3.11 years |
Stopping | Sounds made with a long airflow are replaced by sounds made with a stopped airflow (e.g. ‘sea’ becomes ‘tea’, ‘shoe’ becomes ‘to’). | 2.0-3.5 years |
Velar Fronting | Sounds made with the tongue hitting the back of the mouth (e.g. ‘k’ and ‘g’) are replaced with sounds made at the front of the mouth (e.g. ‘t’ and ‘d’) so ‘car’ becomes ‘tar’, ‘key’ becomes ‘tea’. |
2-3.11 years |
Palatal Fronting | The tongue is moved forward in the mouth so the ‘sh’ sound becomes a ‘s’ sound (e.g. ‘shop’ becomes ‘sop’). | 2-3.11 Years |
Gliding | The ‘r’ and ‘l’ sounds are replaced with the ‘w’ or ‘y’ sound (e.g. ‘red’ becomes ‘wed’). | 2-5.11 years |
De-affrication | Affricate sounds (e.g. ‘sh’, ‘ch’ and ‘j’) are replaced with ‘t’, ‘d’ or ‘s’ sounds. | 2-4.11 years |
Consonant Cluster Reduction | Clusters of consonants in words are reduced by one or more consonants (e.g. “brick” becomes ‘bick’, ‘clown’ becomes ‘cown’) | 2.0-4.11 years |
Diagnosis alone is NOT the solution. It simply opens the door to getting the help that is needed by arming all involved with the relevant information.
More specific implications of not seeking treatment will be influenced by the common difficulties that are most influencing your individual child.
For more information see the relevant fact sheets under areas of concern or refer to the other relevant resources section below.
Diagnoses are used to label a specific set of symptoms that are being experienced by a child.
This label then helps to narrow down and specifically tailor what:
A diagnosis helps the child and their carers (parents, teachers, health professionals, carers) to:
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