How do you know if your child has a speech disorder or impediment? Speech disorders or impediments are more common in children than you might think. Communication disorders can include, stammering, stuttering, lisp, mis-articulation of sounds, not speaking, difficult to understand, and more.
Common types of speech disorders in children
Stuttering
Apraxia of Speech
Apraxia involves rearranging and/or inconsistent production of speech sounds. Apraxia can be acquired from a stroke or injury or developmental, this is when the symptoms become evident when the child starts talking.
Speech Sound Disorder
When a child has difficulty producing certain sounds is considered a speech sound disorder. The sounds typically include /sh/, /ch/, /g/, /th/, /l/, /s/, and /r/. For instance, a child may say “wabbit” for “rabbit”.
There are two different categories of speech sound disorders. The first is an articulation or phonetic disorder which is when a child has difficulty physically producing certain sounds. The second is a phonemic or sound disorder.
This is when a child has trouble learning the sound distinctions. These types of speech disorders can be easily corrected with speech therapy.
Cluttering
This is when speech is difficult to understand because of a rapid rate, affecting the fluency. When a child speaks very fast, it can result in them repeating themselves. It is also called fluency disorder
Lisp
For children with a lisp, they struggle to clearly produce the /s/ sound. When a child pushes their tongue too far forward in the mouth is a frontal lisp. When too much air escapes out of the side of their mouth, making a “slushy” side is a lateral lisp.
These are just a few speech disorders, but with early intervention with speech therapy, a child can overcome their speech impediment.
