If your child has difficulty with saying sounds or being understood and you get an evaluation by an SLP, you may hear the terms from that professional. As a parent, it can be difficult to know the difference and which one describes your child. Hopefully, the therapist took the time to describe these terms and the differences to you! Even if they did, these can still be hard to parse apart! Here is a hopefully simple way to see the differences and which one may describe your child!
Articulation disorder
-This is given when there are just a few sounds that are difficult for the child to say and they aren’t related to other sounds. For example, if it is difficult for a child to say the “th”, “r”, and “l” sounds. Again, it is usually just a few sounds!
Phonological disorder
-This is given to children who have difficulty with many sounds and these sounds are related. We like to think of these children as having “rules” about the sounds they are using. These “rules” are called “processes” in the SLP world. Below are the more common “rules” we are looking for with children.
SEE CHART BELOW
Again, this is a simplified way of differentiating articulation and phonological processes and the processes listed are the more common ones that we address. There are others and these processes can be combined (doesn’t that make it easier 🤪)! If your child has a lot of errors that don’t fit these patterns, they may be combining patterns below as well. If you are noticing these patterns before the age on the left, keep an eye as they near this age and pass it. If they are continuing to make the error after this age or have specific questions about these rules, do not hesitate to contact any of us! We are happy to help!
~Happy Summer!
Amber
| Process | Definition | Example | Approximate age it disappears |
| Fronting/Backing | Sounds made in the front of the mouth are made in the back, or sounds in the back of the mouth are made in front. | Fronting:
“Tat” for “cat” Backing: “Cook” for “took” |
3.5 years |
| Stopping | Sounds that are supposed to be longer, are stopped short | “dump” for “jump”
“pall” for “fall” |
3-5 years |
| Gliding | /r/ becomes /w/ or /l/ becomes /w/ or “y” sound | “yeyo” for “yello”
“wead” for “read” |
6 years |
| Affrication/Deaffirication | Nonaffricate sounds are replaced with affricate sounds or affricate sounds are replaced with a fricative or stop sound | “Jog” for “dog”
“ships” for “chips” |
3-4 years |
| Depalatalization | Palatal sound is replaced with nonpalatal sound | “wit” for “wish” | 5 years |
| Alveolarization | Nonalveolar sound replaced with alveolar sound | “tow” for “show | 5 years |
| Labialization | Nonlabial sound replaced with labial sound | “pat” for “cat” | 6 years |
| Assimilation | Consonants are the same in the word | “pap” for “map” | 3 years |
| Denasalization | Nasal sound becomes nonnasal | “boo” for “moo” | 2.5 years |
| Final consonant Devoicing | Voiced consonant at the end of a word is not voiced | “dock” for “dog” | 3 years |
| Prevocalic Voicing | Voiceless consonant at beginning of a word is voiced | “gick” for “kick” | 6 years |
| Reduplication | Complete or incomplete syllable is repeated | “baba” for “bottle” | 3 years |
| Cluster Reduction | Two or more consonants reduced to one consonant | “pay” for “play” | 4-5 years |
| Initial/Final consonant deletion | Final consonant in word is omitted | “at” for “bat”
“do” for “dog” |
3 years |
| Weak syllable deletion | Unstressed syllable in word is omitted | “ella” for “umbrella” | 4 years |
| Epenthesis | Sound is added between two consonants (usually “uh”) | “palease” for “please” | 8 years |