Articulation

Articulation means how we produce speech sounds.  This is the area that most people associate with what Speech/Language Pathologists do in the public school setting.  There are many other areas that Speech/Language Pathologists are trained in besides articulation, but this is certainly one of the most fun, interesting jobs that we have!

Children are expected to develop the ability to use the speech sounds of English correctly by the age of 9 years.  In Nebraska, we have norms that tell us at what ages to expect these sounds to be developed for boys and girls.  Speech/Language Pathologists use these norms, in addition to other information, to determine whether a child is developing normally or needs intervention to help them produce speech sounds better.  For example, a four-year old who says, "I wike that" for "I like that" is entirely appropriate.  But by the age of seven years this same error would not be appropriate because the child should have 'outgrown' these errors.

Working with students as early as possible is the best way to insure that they will overcome any articulation difficulties they may have.

Here are some cool links for practicing sounds:

http://www.quia.com/pages/speechersclass.html 

http://www.quia.com/pages/havemorefun.html

http://www.sayitright.org/free-stuff.html

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