Articulation

Communication Handout

Articulation (speech) refers to sounds and sequences of sounds we use when we speak. The sound patterns of language we call "speech" are made up of a combination of sounds that form words. Articulation involves rhythm, rate, pitch and intonation. Articulation development is a gradual process beginning in infancy and continuing into a child's seventh or eighth year.

Important steps to speech development are:

first sounds (newborn to 3 months)
vocal play (4 to 6 months)-prespeech sounds made by babies experimenting with their voice
babbling (6 to 11 months) -repeating syllables in sequence, ba-ba-ba
first words (12 to 18 months)
rapid speech development (18 to 36 months)

Children develop speech at different rates and ages. As children are developing their articulation skills, they may produce individual sounds correctly. However, when they connect these sounds into words and sentences, the intelligibility of their speech may not be as clear. Children develop different speech sounds at different ages:

Birth to age three: p, b, m, n, h, w
Age three to four: k, g, d, t, ng, f, y
Age four to eight: s, l, r, z, ch, sh, j, v, th, zh

Factors which influence good speech development are:

hearing
good listening skills
structure of the mouth, lips, tongue, jaw, palate, and oral muscles
sense of feeling in the mouth
eye contact
coordination of the brain and muscles
ability to understand and express meaning with words and sentences at an age-appropriate level
appropriate speech models
opportunities to share in talking
maturity