Andree-Anne Morrissey

There are three main categories of speech sound errors: phonological errors, articulation errors, and motor speech errors. Phonological disorders are defined by a child's ability to produce the sound, but struggle with placing it in words. Articulation disorders are defined by difficulties producing sounds, regardless of the context they are in. Motor speech disorders are defined by difficulties with the motor movements required for speech.

To facilitate the generalization of target sounds from a structured to an unstructured context, I share my "two-pronged" approach with parents.

The concept of a "speech staircase" helps guide where to start and where to go. As with any skill, you should start at the bottom and work your way up: Isolation, Syllable, Word, Phrase, Sentence, Reading, Structured Conversation, Unstructured Conversation. As your child moves from one stair to the next, you may find that they go back to making the same mistakes. This is completely normal. Your child may benefit from visual supports and/or pauses to carry their their skill up to this new step.