Paving the way to strong literacy development begins long before Kindergarten, but if your child enters school and cannot be understood by an unfamiliar listener at least 90% of the time, he or she is at risk for reading difficulties. In fact, research states that literacy acquisition is likely to be compromised if a child’s speech is not easily understood by the age of 5 years, 6 months. Persistent speech difficulties well into a child’s 6th year are also associated with literacy development difficulties.

“Articulation” refers to making sounds and involves coordination of movement among lips, teeth, palate, and tongue. Does your child:

• Have problems making a specific sound properly (e.g., make an ‘s’ sound more like ‘th’, or out the side of their mouth rather than the centre)?
• Struggle to make a particular sound (e.g, problems making ‘r’ so that ‘run’ sounds like ‘wun’)?

“Phonology” refers to how sounds are put together to make syllables and words. Does your child:

• Use sounds in a different pattern (e.g., uses ‘s’ only at the end of a word but not at the beginning)?
• Make sounds correctly, but use it in the wrong word (e.g., says the ‘t’ for a ‘k’ sound, and says ‘tat’ for ‘cat’)?
• Have problems with many different sounds?

Children who have a disorder of phonology are especially at-risk for ongoing problems with language and literacy due to a weak sound/symbol system.

If a child is exhibiting speech sound difficulties it is important to make sure that he or she is assessed and receives the most appropriate treatment, to bolster strong literacy development.