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Articulation
Articulation disorders and deficits involve the way in which the individual pronounces a specific sound. For example, an individual may pronounce the word "sand" as "than" or "van" as "ban". An Articulation disorder is associated with motor planning of the muscles and/or structural abnormalities. Structural abnormalities could include cleft lip/palate or missing teeth. Individuals with hearing loss or impairment also present with articulation errors because their perception of sounds is altered. Articulation Disorders and deficits are also more prevalent in males than females.
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A phonological based disorder or deficit involves patterns or rules that the individual has created to pronounce a sound. For example, an individual may present with a phonological process (rule) in which every sound produce towards the back of the mouth (/k/ and /g/) is replaced with sounds produced in the front of the mouth (/t/ and /d/). Another example would be an individual simplifying a cluster or blend like saying "cool" instead of "school". This is different to an articulation based disorder/deficit because a single rule can affect several sounds. In the same way, targeting a single rule can improve several sounds at once and therefore drastically improving the individual's intelligibility.
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A motor speech disorder means that an individual cannot pronounce the accurate sound because their muscles lack control and/or strength. Two common motor speech disorders are:
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Apraxia = planning/programming problem. Apraxia is a lack of control and incoordination of the muscles used for speaking. This is a neurological disorder meaning that there is a disconnect between the brain and the muscles used for speaking. Apraxia may be caused by a genetic disorder or syndrome, stroke, brain cancer/tumor, brain injury, or illnesses/infections that affects the brain. A great resource with more information about Childhood Apraxia of speech is Apraxia-kids.org.
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Dysarthria = movement problem. Dysarthria is muscle weakness of the mouth, tongue, cheeks, and respiratory system that impair an individual's ability to pronounce sounds. Movement can be slow, labored and incoordinated due to decreased muscle strength. Individual's with Dysarthria may also have problems with breathing, nasality, intonation, and voicing. Speech may sound slurred, flat, unnaturally high or low pitched, whispered, or strained. Dysarthria may be caused by Parkinson's Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Cerebral Palsy, Huntington's Disease, stroke, brain injury, or tumors.
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