Articulation and
Phonological Disorders
What are articulation and phonological disorders?
Articulation and phonological disorders are difficulties producing speech sounds or groups of speech sounds that persist beyond the typical period of speech development and/or result in difficulty understanding speech.
Articulation disorders usually include one or two speech sound errors such as:
- lisps and ‘s’ and ‘z’ distortions
- substitution for ‘r’ and ‘er’
- substitutions for ‘th,’ ‘I,’ ‘sh,’ ‘ch’
Phonological disorders include multiple sound errors that typically cause problems with the intelligibility of the child’s speech and can include the following:
- deleting final consonants from a word
- deleting consonants from a blend of two or three consonants (blow for bow)
- replacing “back” (k,g) with “front” sounds (t,d)
- replacing “continuing” (f,s) with “stop” sounds (p,t)
How can UCF help?
The UCF Communication Disorders Clinic offers services designed to help those in need of therapy for articulation and phonological disorders. Clinical faculty members are distinguished service providers. In addition, they are dedicated teachers and researchers in preparing the next generation of speech-language pathologists. First, the individual will need an evaluation of speech.
Tell me about the evaluation at the UCF Communication Disorders Clinic.
Comprehensive evaluations will be conducted to determine what sounds or groups of speech sounds are affected. Prior to the evaluation, an intake form requesting pertinent information about language and speech development needs to be completed. The evaluation is scheduled for one to two hours. This evaluation will include parental report, when appropriate, observational data and test administration to make the appropriate diagnostic decisions.
If you have already received a speech and language evaluation at another location, please send us the report with your case history form. This will allow us to determine if and what additional diagnostics need to be completed.
In addition, you may send any relevant reports from previous speech/language evaluations, radiological reports, IEP school records etc.
Please click on the link below to complete a case history form. The completed form can be faxed or mailed to the UCF Communication Disorders Clinic (see Contact Us). It cannot be sent back electronically due to privacy issues.
Adult Speech and Language Case History Form
Child Speech and Language Case History Form
Tell me about treatment at the UCF Communication Disorders Clinic.
Therapeutic programs are uniquely developed to help the child in his/her speech intelligibility. Therapy includes evidence-based approaches shown to change the speech sound production of preschool and school-age children. Therapy for these disorders may include:
- discrimination training
- traditional speech sounds production training
- auditory bombardment of target sounds in context
- cycles training
- minimal-pair training
A more intensive intervention program is sometimes needed to correct misarticulated sounds. The UCF Communication Disorders Clinic is designed to provide more intensive and individualized treatment options. Frequency of therapeutic services range from once a week to multiple sessions a week.
Additional websites for further information on Articulation and Phonological Disorders:
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