Speech Therapy

If a person is unable to produce speech sounds correctly or fluently, or has problems with his or her voice, then he or she may have a speech disorder and may be in need of speech therapy. Difficulties pronouncing sounds and stuttering are common types of speech disorders. 

Other speech disorders may include:

Articulation Disorder

A diminished ability to produce the specific sounds of speech. These sounds may be added, altered or omitted during speech, making it difficult to understand the person. A complete list of ages and specific sound development chart please visit

www.talkingchild.com/speechchart.html

Phonological Process Disorder

A disorder that involves a problem with the rules of phonology. These are sound errors with specific patterns. For example, a patient may say “goat” for “boat” or “side” for “slide” or produce all “back” sounds /k/ and /g/ as “front” sounds /t/ and /d/ or make other sound errors.

Apraxia of Speech

A disorder in the ability to plan the oral movements involved in speech. This lack of coordination can make it difficult for the child to say sounds, syllables or words. These difficulties are caused by motor planning and coordination deficits in the brain-not muscle weakness or paralysis.

Voice Disorder

Any problem involving vocal dysfunction (loudness, abnormal pitch, etc). Children with these disorders may complain of hoarse, weak, or constricted voices.

Oral Motor Disorder

A diminished ability to move oral muscles for speech production. Therapy could involve strengthening oral or facial structures like the jaw, tongue, lips and cheeks.

Fluency Disorder (Stuttering)

A disorder characterized by disruptions in the production of speech sounds characteristics of a fluency disorder include word repetitions, prolongations of sounds and/or words, and at times, a complete “block” of speech. These dysfluencies may occur within sounds, syllables, whole words or phrases.