Articulation refers to the way sound is produced. When a person articulates they use their oral structures: tongue, jaw, teeth, lips, and palate. These oral structures change the airflow that comes from the vocal folds in your larynx. Some sounds are made when our voice is turned off (voiceless) and only air passes through your oral structures while other speech sounds need your voice to be turned on in order to create the correct sound (voiced).  A voiceless sound would be the /h/ sound, a voiced sound would be the /m/ sound.  The creation or production of speech sounds involves coordinated movements between your oral structures and your respiratory system (lungs). 

When an individual has a hard time producing age-expected sounds it can impact their ability to communicate with others. An articulation impairment is when an individual has difficulty through motor-based errors (movement) producing sounds in various levels (isolation, syllable, word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, connected speech) that is not consistent with their chronological age.  These errors could be described as substitutions (baf for bath), omissions (ake for cake), additions (buhlack for black) or distortions (frontal lisp). 

All speech sounds are acquired at different ages, some are early developed sounds  such as the /m/, /b/, and /p/ sound while others are more difficult and take a longer time to acquire, like the stubborn /r/ sound. As children grow they develop speech sounds in a predictable order and it is normal for younger children to demonstrate speech errors as their language grows however, children who have an articulation disorder could continue making these speech sound errors while other children their age do not. This is where speech therapy comes in! 

Speech therapy is the assessment and treatment of communication challenges and speech disorders. 

It is important for families to be working with their child's speech-language pathologist in order to determine what therapy approach will work with their child.  Even though your child is receiving services at school, practicing these skills at home can increase the effectiveness and help with generalization. Make sure to model slow, clear speech to your child to help your child hear each sound in words but also allows them to imitate those speech sounds more accurately. The more that you work on your child's speech sounds outside of the school environment the quicker they will improve with their speech sounds! It's similar to any subject in school, if you only do math at school and you didn't have any homework, it would take you longer to learn it. It's the same with speech sounds! So make sure you practice BUT do not over practice because your child's oral structures need a break after practicing. 

1.  Speech and Language Handouts from Handy Handouts

2. Maintaining speech and language skills over the summer 

3. Articulation handout for parents TPT 

4. Articulation hierarchy for parents TPT 

5. Articulation handout for concerned parents TPT 

6. Speech Practice on the go TPT 

7. Handout: How to help with articulation skills TPT 

8. ASHA Suggestions for Parents