Phonological Impairment and Motor-Speech/Articulation Disorder (Coursework Sample)

(Your Name) (Professor) (Subject) 15 September 2016 Phonological Impairment and Motor-Speech/Articulation Disorder Phonological impairment and motor-speech/articulation disorders are forms of speech sound disorders common with some children. Phonological impairment refers to the phonological problems arising from delays in the process of maturation of the underlying phonological system and which affects intelligibility. Motor-speech/articulation disorder refers to the problem of producing specific age-expected speech sounds. Although the differences between the two forms of disorders may be blurred, they are clinically remarkable and therefore a proper diagnosis is necessary before any form of treatment commences. Determination of phonological impairment or a motor-speech/articulation disorder can be done through establishing if the child can repeat a sound or group of sounds when prompted by a therapist or not. If they are unable to repeat the sounds then the problem is considered to be of articulation. The other diagnostic criteria is to establish if the errors affect a wide category of sounds or just a single or two where if it is the former then it is considered as phonological and the latter articulation disorder. One can also diagnose the type of disorder by considering the error consistency. While articulation disorders are generally consistent, phonological errors are not (Ball 21). The treatment approaches to be used would be different. For phonological disorders, the phonological approach which targets a group of sounds with similar error patterns so as to help the child internalize phonological rules and generalize them to other sounds would be used. For motor-speech/articulation impairment, the best treatment approach would be a targeted clinical intervention focusing on each sound deviation so as to correct the particular sounds’ production (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association). Works Cited American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2016.Web.15 September 2016. Ball, Martin. Principles of Clinical Phonology: Theoretic...