Speech

Speech refers to the way in which we use our lips, tongue, teeth and jaw to produce individual sounds within words. 

Speech sound errors are an expected part of development and may resolve naturally. For some children, these errors do not resolve at the expected age. This may impact their ability to be understood by others and reduce their confidence. Speech sound errors that persist into schooling usually impact on literacy development. 

Speech sound errors are generally categorised into:

• Articulation errors- when a child is unable to produce a sound (e.g., ‘s’) accurately. This leads them to remove the sound or replace the sound. 
• Phonological errors- when a sound pattern or substitution occurs consistently. 
• For example, the phonological pattern of fronting, is when back sounds (e.g., 'k') are substituted for front sounds (e.g., 't'). A child who is fronting may produce the word ‘cat’ as “tat” and ‘car’ as “tar”. 

Connected Kids offers assessment and support to children who have speech sound errors.