Articulation

Question 1

What is Articulation?

Answer 1

The ability to produce sounds in sequence by moving the articulators is called articulation.
What are the articulators?
Tongue
Lips
Jaw
Hard palate
Soft palate (velum)
Often interchanged with a phonological disorder.

Question 2

Prevelance

Answer 2

4% of children have an articulation disorder
Affects boys more than girls
60% are of unknown causes
40% associated with middle ear infections, developmental disorders e.g MR, Downs Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy

Question 3

How do we classify sounds?

Answer 3

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
Phonetic Alphabet describes and classifies each sound by how and where it is produced in the speech mechanisms
Classifies both vowels and consonants
Each sound is represented by a symbol
Transcription is usually between / /

Question 4

Articulation Disorders

Answer 4

Characterized in four ways:
Substitutions
Occur when one standard phoneme is substituted for another
e.g. wabbit for rabbit
Omissions
Occur when a phoneme is deleted
e.g. abbit for rabbit
Distortions
Occur when a non-standard phoneme is used – non-recognizable sound
Additions
Occur when a phoneme is added to a word
e.g. chuair for chair

Question 5

Speech Intelligibility

Answer 5

Refers to how easy it is to understand the individual
Somewhat subjective
Can be based on a % of intelligibility
May depend on:
Familiarity of the speaker
Number and types of sound errors
Environmental factors e.g. background noise

Question 6

Articulation -Hearing Impairments

Answer 6

Hearing is the primary way in which a child acquires speech sounds
Important to remember:
Hearing loss not only limits the ability to hear others, but limits the ability to hear themselves and monitor their own speech production
Children with hearing loss will also have difficulty with:
Pitch
Rate
Rhythm

Question 7

Articulation – Cleft Palate

Answer 7

4th most frequent birth defect
Approximately 1/750 live births
50% - both lip and palate
25% palate only
25%lip only (either 1 or both sides)
Six weeks after conception structures that form the roof of the mouth have grown close together and begin the process of uniting with one another
Union of the lip forms after the palate (9 weeks), so a child can have an intact palate but a cleft lip

Question 8

Articulation – Cleft Palate – speech difficulties

Answer 8

Most amount of difficulty with sounds requiring a build-up of pressure in the oral cavity e.g. p, b, t, d, s, sh
Vowels are accompanied by inappropriate resonance
Consonants can result in audible air escaping through the nose – nasal emissions, which can almost sound like a snort

Question 9

Articulation – Cleft Palate - Other Symptoms

Answer 9

Misaligned teeth
Changes on the shape of the nose
Feeding/sucking problems
Flow of liquids/solids through nasal passages
Failure to gain weight/poor growth
Recurrent ear infections

Question 10

Articulation – Cleft Palate - Surgical Care

Answer 10

Cleft lip usually repaired within the first 3 months of life
Cleft palate usually repaired within at approximately 12 months of age
80-90% of repairs will be successful
10-20% may need additional surgery