Speech Disorders

Foothills Language & Feeding has experience treating patients with the following types of speech disorders:

Articulation disorders

Children’s speech sounds develop from the time they utter their first babbles until mid-elementary school. Some children have difficulties using their tongue, lips, movement of the jaw and cheek muscles to approximate the correct sounds. Here is a list of when approximately a child should have mastered a specific sound:

Phonological Process disorders

Some children who do not naturally suppress processes that are grouped by various patterns of sound production. For example, a child might not have suppressed the process of “fronting” as he/she instead of producing sounds in the back of the mouth, produces them in the front. For example: instead of back, the child says bat. Instead of bag, the child says bad. Many other phonological processes disorders exist and the treatment is through auditory bombardment followed by a cycle approach.

Other types of speech disorders that are not necessarily developmental in nature include:

Apraxia

This is a motor planning (neurological) disorder where there is difficulty with sequencing of sounds. Individuals with apraxia can be children or adults. The individual demonstrates groping like postures around the mouth when trying to initiate the sound in a word. This can occur in children or adults. Apraxia is seen in adults following strokes or brain injury.

Dysarthria

This is due to neuromotor disorders such as those with cerebral palsy, forms of brain injury, and certain types of strokes. It is seen in individuals with weakness or too much tone around the oral facial musculature. Oral motor treatment can often be helpful.

Ankyloglossia

A physical condition where the lingual frenulum (tissue under the tongue) is shortened. Oral motor treatment is provided and often a trial of speech therapy is warranted before surgical clipping of the tongue is warranted.