Difficulty producing individual sounds. As a result, a child may substitute an easy sound for a harder one (e.g., “tun” for sun), omit sounds (e.g., “ool” for school) or distort sounds (e.g., “shlun” for sun). In some cases (e.g., apraxia of speech), a child may have difficulty combining the movements of speech sounds in sequences, as required for words and sentences. Articulation errors often make speech very hard to understand. Some characteristics of an articulation disorder at different ages include:
- 8-9 months: Does not babble in a repetitive manner
- 18 months: Uses primarily vowels or only a few consonants
- 3 years: Leaves out consonants or has unclear speech
- 4 years: Has distorted speech that is often hard to understand
- 6 years: Cannot produce some speech sounds