Articulation

Articulation is the process by which sounds, syllables, and words are formed when your tongue, lips, jaw, teeth, and palate alter the air stream coming from the vocal folds.  It is the physical act of forming sounds correctly/precisely for others to understand.  It is important to remember that sounds are developmental, appearing at specific ages.  Also, there are “differences” vs. “disorders” for individuals exposed to other languages. 

Articulation Disorder: This can vary from mild to severe, depending on the individual.  An articulation disorder is when an individual produces sounds, syllables, or words incorrectly and is often misunderstood.  It can lead to communication breakdowns and sometimes a change in confidence.  There are different types; however, the most common error is known as a sound substitution (substituting one sound for another such as “big” for “pig”).  

Phonological Disorder: This is when a child follows “patterns” and not just single sound substitutions.  There are multiple phonological processes.  Some include when a child omits all final sounds of words (“ca” for “cat” and “do” for “dog”), replaces sounds made in the back of our mouth with sounds made using our tongue tip (“tat” for “cat” and “tup” for “cup”), replaces sounds made with our tongue tip to sounds made in the back of our mouth (ex: “doh” for “go”), sounds that have continuous air flow can be replaced with sounds that “stop” (ex: “do” for “so”).  These patterns happen with many words, not just one.  Certain phonological processes should be no longer present by age 3, according to developmental normative charts.

Apraxia: Apraxia is a motor planning disorder. When it comes to speech, it means the brain has trouble telling the mouth muscles how to move to say sounds, syllables, and words—even though the muscles themselves are not weak.  An individual can produce a word correctly one time and then not again.  The focus is on sound combinations, rather than sounds in isolation.  Sometimes, speech can sound like jargon. 
There are two types of Apraxia: verbal and non-verbal