Speech Sound Disorders

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association defines speech sound disorders as an umbrella term referring to any difficulty or combination of difficulties with perception, motor production, or phonological representation of speech sounds and speech segments—including phonotactic rules governing permissible speech sound sequences in a language.

Speech sound disorders can be categorized into organic or functional deficits in nature.

• Organic Speech Sound Disorders: results from an underlying motor/neurological, structural, or sensory/perceptual cause. This includes:

  • Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS): A rare motor speech disorder that involves problems with saying sounds, syllables, and words due to the brain having difficulties with coordinating and planning the necessary muscle movements of speech for words the child knows he or she wants to say.

  • Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder caused by muscle weakness. Signs of dysarthria include slurred speech, breathy vocal quality, and imprecise sound production.

  • Cleft Lip/Palate Children with cleft lip and/or palate often need speech intervention to monitor speech development and to treat any speech delays or errors that they might develop. Some children will require speech therapy. Others will require further surgery. And others may require both.

  • Functional Speech Sound Disorders:

are idiopathic—they have no known cause.