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The SLP is here to help children who experience difficulty in one or more of the following areas:
Language
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Expressive Language: The ability to express and sequence ideas clearly using correct grammar and syntax (word order)
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Receptive Language: The ability to understand spoken language, follow directions, and make sense of classroom instruction
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Pragmatic Language: The social language skills we use in our daily interactions with others
Speech
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Articulation: The ability to produce sounds in a manner appropriate to a child's age; articulation delays focus on errors (distortions and substitutions) in production of individual speech sounds, and phonological disorder focus on predictable, rule-based errors (e.g., fronting, stopping, and final consonant deletion) that affect more than one sound
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Fluency: The ability to communicate ideas without excessive repetitions and hesitations
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Voice: The ability to use correct voice volume, quality, and pitch.
Often difficulties in these areas can interfere with a child's educational progress, academically, emotionally, or socially. When one or more of these areas listed above begins to negatively impact a child's success in school, intervention may be necessary.
For a description of some commonly observed phonological processes, please click here.
Developmental Sound Acquisition
Many articulation errors are considered developmental depending on the child's age. If your child is not able to correctly say a sound by the age listed below, and their articulation affects his/her educational performance, they may qualify for speech therapy services or interventions at school. All children do not develop at the same time and in the same way. We cannot expect correct speech from every child in the primary grades, so please keep this in mind. The sounds listed below are categorized by typical age of acquisition. For example, a child age 3 should be able to produce the following sounds: P, B, M, H, and W.
Age: Speech Sound(s):
3 P, B, M, H, W
4 T, D, K, G, N, F, Y
5 NG, Y, V
6 L, SH, CH, J, L-Blends
7 S-Blends, ZH (as in measure), S, Z, R
8 TH, R, R-blends
The list below is just an example of when a particular process or error would be considered a good intervention target:
Kindergarten:
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Velar Fronting of K and G sounds
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Stopping of S, Z, F and V sounds
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Final Consonant Deletion (taking off "endings" of words)
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Backing
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Cluster reduction of consonant sounds (ex. "top" for stop, or "poon" for spoon)
First Grade:
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Liquid Simplification of L sounds
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Palatal Substitutions of SH, CH, J sounds
Second-Third Grade:
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Substitution/Stopping of "TH"
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Liquid Simplification (R)
Please note that in order to receive intervention within the school setting, there must also be a DOCUMENTED EDUCATIONAL IMPACT. This means that your child will not receive intervention for sound errors unless it impacts their ability to succeed within the classroom. Some educational impacts of an articulation or phonological error may include; reduced overall intelligibility (ability to understand what they are saying), errors within writing, social impact, reduced phonemic awareness, etc.
Please read the article here that provides information for parents about school-based vs. private or outpatient therapy
Videos
