A phonological disorder refers to a child who has not learned the rules for combining sounds into words and creates their own.
Phonology is the science of speech sounds and speech patterns. Phonological disorders often occur with articulation disorders. They may cause significant impediment to intelligible speech and can also create difficulties for future reading and learning disabilities.
The speech-language pathologists at “Speech Therapy Services” are trained to address the needs of children who display difficulties with their skills of phonological awareness.
Phonological disorder causes problems making the right sounds for letters or words. Children with this disorder make 3 types of mistakes:
- Leaving out a sound (saying “dess” for “dress”)
- Replacing one sound with another (saying “bat” instead of “cat”)
- Adding a sound (saying “plaper” instead of “paper”)
We will perform a complete analysis of the child’s speech sound development and skills. Standardized tests are adopted to assess sound. An oral/motor examination is performed to look at the structure, movement and strength of the lips, tongue, cheeks and jaw for speech.
Speech therapy may be recommended, based on the results of the evaluation. Therapy to correct phonological processing disorders involves making the child aware of the correct sound patterns and providing drills with the new patterns.
The child will use headphones to listen to frequently repeated words that are expressed, using the correct patterns. This is known as “auditory bombardment”. Symptoms may include:
- Replacing one sound with another
- Not being able to speak as well as expected for your child’s age
- Leaving out or adding extra sounds
In order to enhance the success of treatment, families are armed with strategies, information, assistance and home exercises. Family involvement is a very important part of the overall success of the process. If a child in your family is struggling with development, please contact us at (561) 123-1234