What is the difference between articulation and phonology in speech sound disorders?

 

When conducting evaluations and providing therapy, I often find that many caregivers do not understand the difference between articulation and phonology in speech sound disorders.  

 

There is a distinct difference between articulation vs. phonology disorders, as well as how to treat each. 

 

Given that most people do not know the difference between articulation versus phonological disorder, Speech Language Pathologists often use the umbrella term “speech sound disorder.”

 

What is articulation?

An articulation disorder is an error or distortion of a single speech sound. 

 

• The most well-known example of articulation is a person having a lisp for the /s/ sound. 
• Another example of articulation would be someone who distorts the “r” sound. 

 

Some articulation errors are appropriate at a certain age (such as having a frontal lisp for /s/ at 3 years of age), but this is no longer typical if they are still presenting with a lisp at 7 years of age.

 

What is a phonological disorder?

 

A phonological disorder is a predictable pattern that affects more than one sound. 

 

It is a pattern that children use when they are learning to speak to simplify speech if sounds are too difficult for them to produce. Children with highly unintelligible (difficult to understand) speech may have a phonological disorder due to their speech being characterized by many patterns of incorrect productions. 

 

An example of a common pattern we see in children would be a child who consistently replaces the /k/ sound in the last position of a word (like in the word “back”) with a /t/. 

 

• The following words would be produced as “back-bat; deck-det.” 
• This specific pattern is known as “fronting.” 
• The speech sounds that are typically produced in the back of the mouth, “/k/,” are being produced in the front of the mouth, “/t/.” 
• And it is predictable and consistent, so it is therefore considered a pattern. 

 

Children under the age of 3 typically use phonological patterns as part of their speech which is considered developmentally appropriate. 

 

As children learn and develop, these patterns usually correct themselves. It is common and even expected that a child will use fronting (mentioned in the previous paragraph) at 2 or 3 years of age. If a child is still fronting at 5 years of age, this would be a concern for a phonological disorder.

 

5 Common Phonological Patterns

Some common phonological patterns we see are stopping, cluster reduction, final consonant deletion, gliding, and weak syllable deletion.  

 

See below for further explanation and examples of each phonological pattern (this is not a comprehensive list).

 

Stopping

Stopping is when a child stops the airflow of sounds that have continuous airflow. For example, saying “toe” for “sew” or “garbid” for “garbage.”

 

Cluster Reduction

Cluster reduction is when a child eliminates one sound in a cluster. For example, saying “wing” for “swing” or “bue” for “blue.”

 

Final Consonant Deletion

Final consonant deletion is when a child leaves off the last consonant sound in a word. For example, saying “ca” for “cat” or “do” dog.”

 

Gliding

Gliding is when a child produces the “r” and /l/ sounds as /w/ or “y.” For example, saying “wabbit” for “rabbit” or “yook” for “look.”

 

Weak Syllable Deletion

Weak syllable deletion is when a child deletes a syllable within a word that has two or more syllables. For example, saying “nana” for “banana” or “tato” for “potato.”

 

The Benefit of a Comprehension Evaluation to Determine Treatment Options

It is important to obtain a comprehensive evaluation that includes both articulation and phonology to determine an articulation versus a phonological disorder. 

 

This is imperative because articulation and phonology are NOT treated the same way. 

 

It is also important to note that a child may have both articulation errors as well as phonological patterns. Multiple phonological patterns can also be present in a child’s speech productions.

 

Articulation and Phonology Treatment Approaches

Now that we understand the difference between articulation and phonology, we can discuss treatment approaches. 

 

Articulation Treatment Approaches

 

Articulation errors are typically (not always) treated using a hierarchical approach which focuses on the correct production of the target sound. 

 

Traditionally, speech therapists will work on the specific sound in the following order:

 

• Sounds in isolation
• Sounds in syllables
• Sounds in various positions of a word (beginning, middle, end)
• Sounds in phrases/sentences
• Sounds in conversation

 

Depending on the child, speech therapists can begin anywhere in the hierarchy. 

 

For example, if the child is able to make the /s/ sound in isolation and in syllables such as /es/ or /so/, then we would likely just begin at the word level. When beginning at the word level, you trial the sound in various places throughout the word. You would trial a word with it in the beginning, middle, end, and even in blends (/ks/, /ps/, etc.) to see if the child can produce it in all positions. 

 

Just because the child may be able to produce it in the beginning of words does not mean they will be able to produce it accurately in the middle and/or end of a word. 

 

After they have mastered it in the specific position, you can move on to producing it in phrases and then in sentences. After that you would work on conversational speech and reading tasks to generalize it into everyday speech.

 

While this is a popular treatment approach, there are some speech therapists (including myself) who have worked on an articulation error at the word level heavily using Principles of Motor Learning (PML). 

 

Using this approach, we sometimes see generalization to conversational speech without having to move any further up the hierarchy. If you would like more information on PML, there is a FREE professional development course here.  

 

Phonological Treatment Approaches

Treatment of phonological disorders differs due to the fact that there are many more approaches available to choose from. 

 

A few examples are the contrastive approach, complexity approach, and cycles approach, which are outlined below (this is not a comprehensive list).

 

Contrastive Approach

There are multiple contrastive approaches (minimal pairs, maximal oppositions, treatment of the empty set, multiple oppositions) out there, but to make things a bit simpler I will describe them globally. These approaches focus on emphasizing the difference between specific phonemes in order to draw attention to and differentiate the words from one another.

 

Complexity Approach

This approach focuses on treating more complex phonemes (such as the “ch” sound), which can lead to generalization of untreated, less complex phonemes such as /s/, /f/, and “sh.”

 

Cycles Approach

This approach targets different phonemes in “cycles” over a 5-16 week period. 

 

Each cycle targets a phonological pattern for a predetermined amount of time. There are specific guidelines to follow as to which phonological patterns to work on first and which to work on based on if the child is stimulable (able to produce it) or not.

 

Feeling Overwhelmed? Contact Us Today for a Comprehensive Evaluation!

There are distinct differences when it comes to articulation and phonology in speech sound disorders and how they are treated. 

 

Articulation is a distortion or error of a single sound, while phonology refers to patterns of errors in a child’s speech productions. It is crucial to have a comprehensive evaluation to determine if it is an articulation versus a phonological disorder, as the treatment approaches can largely impact the progress a child makes in therapy. 

 

We know that it is also important to find a speech therapist who understands the difference between articulation and phonology as well as the different treatment approaches to ensure maximum success and progress.

 

If you are concerned about your child’s speech sound productions, please reach out to schedule a free Kid’s Speech Therapy Consultation here.

For additional information on this topic, you can visit the American Speech-Language Hearing Association at this link: Articulation & Phonology.