Written By: Michelle E. Sisto, MS CCC-SLP TSSLD S
According to the American Speech Language and Hearing Association, a speech sound disorder is difficulty with perception, motor production, or phonological representation of speech sounds. Speech sound disorders differ from language disorders, whereas language disorders are difficulties in the acquisition and/or use of language across modalities due to difficulties in comprehension and/or production of language. Speech sound disorders can be either organic or functional. Organic speech sound disorders are developmental or acquired, such as motor/neurological (apraxia/dysarthria), sensory/perceptual (hearing loss/impairment), and structural (cleft lip/palate). Functional speech sound disorders have no known cause and pertain to articulation and phonology difficulties.
Speech sound disorders may look different from person to person. There are several layers when thinking about this concept.
Now that the targets have been selected (what sound and what skill level), where do you go next? You need to select target activities that allow for the child to practice their target word, repeatedly, with appropriate support and feedback to be successful. Speech sound practice usually consists of a lot of drill work because practicing sounds needs to have a high repetition to be articulated correctly. The most important thing to keep in mind is to keep the activities fun, engaging, interactive, and gamelike for optimal progress. Here are some sample exercises that can be implemented to target speech sound disorders.
Speech sound disorder work is usually drill, drill, drill! This is because to learn how to produce sounds, practice makes progress. Just because it is drill work, doesn’t mean it needs to be a fight! Keep it light, simple, and fun! NO pressure, no frustration, just make memories and work on speech sounds at the same time.
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