In this episode, I'm talking with Suzanne from Playing Speech! We discuss various topics related to speech development including phonological processes and speech sound disorders in toddlers and early childhood.
Suzanne has been an SLP for over 13 years. She currently owns her own private practice, where she specializes in SSDs and early intervention. Suzanne also owns and operates a TPT store, PlayingSpeech. When she's not working, Suzanne likes to hang out with her 3 small children, read fantasy and historical fiction novels, and do CrossFit.
Here's some information to keep in mind as you listen to this podcast episode:
Speech sound disorders are defined as any difficulties or combination of difficulties with perception, motor production, or phonological representation of speech sounds and speech segments.
Articulation disorders focus on errors in production of individual speech sounds. Children with an articulation disorder can't coordinate their oral mechanisms [their lips, mouth, tongue, or breath support] to produce certain sounds. They may form distorted speech sounds or swap out sounds they can't make.
Phonological disorders focus on predictable, rule-based errors that affect more than one sound. In other words, children can produce sounds correctly but have trouble combining sounds to form words correctly.
Some phonological errors are developmentally appropriate, but most phonological processes should be resolved by the time a child turns 4.
It is often difficult to cleanly differentiate between articulation and phonological disorders. Because of these difficulties, we use the term "speech sound disorder."
Assessment for speech sound disorders may start as a screening but later require a comprehensive evaluation. Comprehensive assessments include looking at the child as a whole: a medical history, oral motor development/assessment, speech sound inventory, and language (vocabulary) development. Comprehensive assessments are completed using standardized and non-standardized measures. It's important to consider a child's cultural and linguistic background when conducting these assessments.
When it comes to treatment, there are plenty of approaches to try. Look at the child's areas of need and compare them to the options different approaches target. Sometimes, the first approach we try will work, and other times, it will take multiple attempts at different approaches before we finally see progress.