What Is a Speech Sound Disorder?

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsSymptomsDiagnosisCausesTypesTreatment

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Symptoms

Diagnosis

Causes

Types

Treatment

Close

Speech sound disorders are a blanket description for a child’s difficulty in learning, articulating, or using the sounds/sound patterns of their language.These difficulties are usually clear when compared to the communication abilities of children within the same age group.

Speechdevelopmental disordersmay indicate challenges with motor speech. Here, a child experiences difficulty moving the muscles necessary for speech production. This child may also face reduced coordination when attempting to speak.

Speech sound disorders are recognized where speech patterns do not correspond with the movements/gestures made when speaking.

Speech impairments are a common early childhood occurrence—an estimated 2% to 13% of children live with these difficulties.Children with these disorders may struggle with reading and writing. This can interfere with their expected academic performance.Speech sound disorders are often confused with language conditions such as specific language impairment (SLI).

This article will examine the distinguishing features of this disorder. It will also review factors responsible for speech challenges, and the different ways they can manifest. Lastly, we’ll cover different treatment methods that make managing this disorder possible.

Types of Speech Impediments

Symptoms of Speech Sound Disorder

A speech sound disorder may manifest in different ways. This usually depends on the factors responsible for the challenge, or how extreme it is.

There are different patterns of error that may signal a speech sound disorder. These include:

It’s important to note that children develop at different rates. This can reflect in the ease and ability to produce sounds. But where children repeatedly make sounds or statements that are difficult to understand, this could indicate a speech disorder.

Diagnosis of Speech Sound Disorders

For a correct diagnosis, a speech-language pathologist can determine whether or not a child has a speech-sound disorder.

This determination may be made in line with the requirements of theDSM-5 diagnostic criteria. These guidelines require that:

Causes of Speech Sound Disorders

There is no known cause of speech sound disorders. However, several risk factors may increase the odds of developing a speech challenge. These include:

What Is Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)?

Types of Speech Sound Disorders

By the time a child turns three, at least half of what they say should be properly understood.By ages four and five, most sounds should be pronounced correctly—although, exceptions may arise when pronouncing “l”, “s”,”r”,”v”, and other similar sounds. By seven or eight, harder sounds should be properly pronounced.

A child with a speech sound disorder will continue to struggle to pronounce words, even past the expected age. Difficulty with speech patterns may signal one of the following speech sound disorders:

Disfluency

This disorder may cause tension while speaking. Other times, head jerking or blinking may be observed with disfluency.

Children with this disorder often feel frustrated when speaking, it may also cause embarrassment during interactions.

Articulation Disorder

Phonological Disorder

A phonological disorder is present where a child is unable to make the speech sounds expected of their age. Here, mistakes may be made when producing sounds. Other times, sounds like consonants may be omitted when speaking.

Voice Disorder

Where a child is observed to have a raspy voice, this may be an early sign of a voice disorder. Other indicators include voice breaks, a change in pitch, or an excessively loud or soft voice.

Children that run out of breath while speaking may also live with this disorder.Likewise, children may sound very nasally, or can appear to have inadequate air coming out of their nose if they have a voice disorder.

Apraxia

Childhoodapraxiaof speech occurs when a child lacks the proper motor skills for sound production. Children with this condition will find it difficult to plan and produce movements in the tongue, lips, jaw, and palate required for speech.

Treatment of Speech Sound Disorder

Parents of children with speech sound disorders may feel at a loss for the next steps to take. To avoid further strain to the child, it’s important to avoid showing excessive concern.

Instead, listening patiently to their needs, letting them speak without completing their sentences, and showing usual love and care can go a long way.

For professional assistance, a speech-language pathologist can assist with improving a child’s communication. These pathologists will typically use oral motor exercises to enhance speech.

These oral exercises may also include nonspeech oral exercises such as blowing, oral massages and brushing, cheek puffing, whistleblowing, etc.

Nonspeech oral exercises help to strengthen weak mouth muscles, and can help with learning the common ways of communicating.

Parents and children with speech sound disorders may also joinsupport groupsfor information and assistance with the condition.

A Word From Verywell

12 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Eadie P, Morgan A, Ukoumunne OC, Ttofari Eecen K, Wake M, Reilly S.Speech sound disorder at 4 years: prevalence, comorbidities, and predictors in a community cohort of children.Dev Med Child Neurol. 2015;57(6):578-584. doi:10.1111/dmcn.12635McLeod S, Harrison LJ, McAllister L, McCormack J.Speech sound disorders in a community study of preschool children.Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2013;22(3):503-522. doi:10.1044/1058-0360(2012/11-0123)Murphy CF, Pagan-Neves LO, Wertzner HF, Schochat E.Children with speech sound disorder: comparing a non-linguistic auditory approach with a phonological intervention approach to improve phonological skills.Front Psychol. 2015;6:64. Published 2015 Feb 4. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00064Penn Medicine.Speech and Language Disorders-Symptoms and Causes.PsychDB.Speech Sound Disorder (Phonological Disorder).Sices L, Taylor HG, Freebairn L, Hansen A, Lewis B.Relationship between speech-sound disorders and early literacy skills in preschool-age children: impact of comorbid language impairment.J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2007;28(6):438-447. doi:10.1097/DBP.0b013e31811ff8caAmerican Speech-Language-Hearing Association.Speech Sound Disorders: Articulation and Phonology.American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.Speech Sound Disorders.MedlinePlus.Phonological Disorder.National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.Articulation Disorder.National Institute of Health.Phonological Disorder.Lee AS, Gibbon FE.Non-speech oral motor treatment for children with developmental speech sound disorders.Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015;2015(3):CD009383. Published 2015 Mar 25. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD009383.pub2

12 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Eadie P, Morgan A, Ukoumunne OC, Ttofari Eecen K, Wake M, Reilly S.Speech sound disorder at 4 years: prevalence, comorbidities, and predictors in a community cohort of children.Dev Med Child Neurol. 2015;57(6):578-584. doi:10.1111/dmcn.12635McLeod S, Harrison LJ, McAllister L, McCormack J.Speech sound disorders in a community study of preschool children.Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2013;22(3):503-522. doi:10.1044/1058-0360(2012/11-0123)Murphy CF, Pagan-Neves LO, Wertzner HF, Schochat E.Children with speech sound disorder: comparing a non-linguistic auditory approach with a phonological intervention approach to improve phonological skills.Front Psychol. 2015;6:64. Published 2015 Feb 4. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00064Penn Medicine.Speech and Language Disorders-Symptoms and Causes.PsychDB.Speech Sound Disorder (Phonological Disorder).Sices L, Taylor HG, Freebairn L, Hansen A, Lewis B.Relationship between speech-sound disorders and early literacy skills in preschool-age children: impact of comorbid language impairment.J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2007;28(6):438-447. doi:10.1097/DBP.0b013e31811ff8caAmerican Speech-Language-Hearing Association.Speech Sound Disorders: Articulation and Phonology.American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.Speech Sound Disorders.MedlinePlus.Phonological Disorder.National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.Articulation Disorder.National Institute of Health.Phonological Disorder.Lee AS, Gibbon FE.Non-speech oral motor treatment for children with developmental speech sound disorders.Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015;2015(3):CD009383. Published 2015 Mar 25. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD009383.pub2

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Eadie P, Morgan A, Ukoumunne OC, Ttofari Eecen K, Wake M, Reilly S.Speech sound disorder at 4 years: prevalence, comorbidities, and predictors in a community cohort of children.Dev Med Child Neurol. 2015;57(6):578-584. doi:10.1111/dmcn.12635McLeod S, Harrison LJ, McAllister L, McCormack J.Speech sound disorders in a community study of preschool children.Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2013;22(3):503-522. doi:10.1044/1058-0360(2012/11-0123)Murphy CF, Pagan-Neves LO, Wertzner HF, Schochat E.Children with speech sound disorder: comparing a non-linguistic auditory approach with a phonological intervention approach to improve phonological skills.Front Psychol. 2015;6:64. Published 2015 Feb 4. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00064Penn Medicine.Speech and Language Disorders-Symptoms and Causes.PsychDB.Speech Sound Disorder (Phonological Disorder).Sices L, Taylor HG, Freebairn L, Hansen A, Lewis B.Relationship between speech-sound disorders and early literacy skills in preschool-age children: impact of comorbid language impairment.J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2007;28(6):438-447. doi:10.1097/DBP.0b013e31811ff8caAmerican Speech-Language-Hearing Association.Speech Sound Disorders: Articulation and Phonology.American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.Speech Sound Disorders.MedlinePlus.Phonological Disorder.National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.Articulation Disorder.National Institute of Health.Phonological Disorder.Lee AS, Gibbon FE.Non-speech oral motor treatment for children with developmental speech sound disorders.Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015;2015(3):CD009383. Published 2015 Mar 25. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD009383.pub2

Eadie P, Morgan A, Ukoumunne OC, Ttofari Eecen K, Wake M, Reilly S.Speech sound disorder at 4 years: prevalence, comorbidities, and predictors in a community cohort of children.Dev Med Child Neurol. 2015;57(6):578-584. doi:10.1111/dmcn.12635

McLeod S, Harrison LJ, McAllister L, McCormack J.Speech sound disorders in a community study of preschool children.Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2013;22(3):503-522. doi:10.1044/1058-0360(2012/11-0123)

Murphy CF, Pagan-Neves LO, Wertzner HF, Schochat E.Children with speech sound disorder: comparing a non-linguistic auditory approach with a phonological intervention approach to improve phonological skills.Front Psychol. 2015;6:64. Published 2015 Feb 4. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00064

Penn Medicine.Speech and Language Disorders-Symptoms and Causes.

PsychDB.Speech Sound Disorder (Phonological Disorder).

Sices L, Taylor HG, Freebairn L, Hansen A, Lewis B.Relationship between speech-sound disorders and early literacy skills in preschool-age children: impact of comorbid language impairment.J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2007;28(6):438-447. doi:10.1097/DBP.0b013e31811ff8ca

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.Speech Sound Disorders: Articulation and Phonology.

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.Speech Sound Disorders.

MedlinePlus.Phonological Disorder.

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.Articulation Disorder.

National Institute of Health.Phonological Disorder.

Lee AS, Gibbon FE.Non-speech oral motor treatment for children with developmental speech sound disorders.Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015;2015(3):CD009383. Published 2015 Mar 25. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD009383.pub2

Meet Our Review Board

Share Feedback

Was this page helpful?Thanks for your feedback!What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

Was this page helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!

What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

What is your feedback?