What Is Speech Sound Therapy?

Speech sound therapy helps children speak more clearly by targeting the way they produce, organize, and use sounds in words and sentences. Some children need help learning how to make specific sounds. Others need help with sound patterns, such as leaving off final sounds or replacing one sound with another. Some children have motor-planning difficulties that make speech less consistent and harder to coordinate.

Articulation Disorders

Some children have difficulty learning how to make specific speech sounds. These errors may involve substitutions, such as saying /w/ for /r/, or distortions, such as producing a sound in a way that does not sound clear or typical in English.

One sign of an articulation difficulty is that the child has trouble producing the sound even when asked to repeat it carefully.

Some examples of articulation errors:

  • /w/ for /r/

  • lisps

  • distorted sounds

  • sounds that are hard to produce clearly

Phonological Disorders

Some children can use certain sounds in some words, but not in others. At first, this can seem confusing, but it often means the child is using a sound pattern. Phonological errors are rule-based, meaning the child’s brain is applying a pattern about where or how certain sounds can be used.

One sign of a phonological difficulty is that a child can say a sound by itself, but does not use it correctly in words or only uses it correctly in certain positions.

Some examples of phonological errors:

  • leaving off final consonants

  • saying “tick” for “stick,” even though they can say /s/ in “sit”

  • saying “gog” for “dog,” even though they can say /g/ in “gum”

  • replacing many sounds with one easier sound

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (Motor Planning)

Some children have significant difficulty planning and coordinating the movements needed for speech. This can make their speech sound inconsistent from one attempt to the next. This type of motor-planning disorder is called Childhood Apraxia of Speech, or CAS.

CAS is rare, but it requires a different treatment approach than articulation or phonological therapy. One possible sign of CAS is when a child says the same word differently across several back-to-back attempts.

Some possible signs of Childhood Apraxia of Speech include:

  • inconsistent speech errors

  • difficulty imitating words

  • trouble sequencing sounds

  • unusual word stress or rhythm

  • speech that changes from attempt to attempt

Which Type of Speech Sound Support Does My Child Need?

Most parents do not know whether their child needs articulation therapy, phonological therapy, or support for motor planning. That’s where an evaluation comes in.

An evaluation helps identify which sounds are affected, whether the errors follow a pattern, how consistent the child’s speech is, and which type of treatment is likely to help. This information is used to design a treatment plan based on your child’s specific speech needs.

Precision Speech provides in-home speech sound therapy for children in South Jordan, West Jordan, Riverton, Herriman, and nearby communities.

Schedule a free consultation to discuss your concerns.

Speech Sound Therapy for Children

When speech is hard to understand, it can affect conversations with family, teachers, classmates, and friends. If your child leaves sounds out, substitutes sounds, has a lisp, or struggles to say certain sounds clearly, speech sound therapy may help.

That’s where we come in.

ou need clear answers about your child’s speech. Many speech sound errors respond well to the right kind of treatment, but the type of speech sound disorder matters. A child who has trouble producing one sound may need a different treatment approach than a child who uses broader sound patterns or has difficulty coordinating speech movements.