Articulation Therapy

"Poor Wodney. Wodney Wat. His real name was Rodney Rat, but he couldn't produce his r's. To make matters worse, he was a rodent. A wodent."

So begins Helen Lester's book Hooway for Wodney Wat, ©1999. Rodney is very aware of his speech disorder and fortunately for him, it helps him save the day in the end. Unfortunately he faces some taunting along the way.

While articulation development varies across children, speech sounds are typically mastered during the ages indicated below. The joined circles indicate some overlap across ages.

Articulation therapy helps children speak clearly and confidently. Your child may benefit from articulation therapy if he or she:

• sounds "immature" as compared to other children of the same age
• has difficulty pronouncing sounds such as k, g, f, l, sh, ch, j, s, r, th
• frequently reverses, replaces, or deletes sounds within words, e.g. "aminal" for "animal" or "puter" for "computer"
• is over 4 years old and his/her speech cannot be understood by unfamiliar listeners