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Articulation disorder; Developmental articulation disorder; Speech distortion; Sound distortion
Most children have problems pronouncing words early on while their speech is developing.
However, by age 3, at least half of what a child says should be understood (intelligible) by a stranger.
By age 5, a child's speech should be mostly intelligible.
Children with phonological disorder will substitute, leave off, or change sounds. These errors may make it hard for other people to understand the child. Only family members may be able to understand a child who has a more severe phonological speech disorder.
Commonly, children with this disorder have:
Children should be examined for disorders such as:
The health care provider should ask about issues, such as whether more than one language or a certain dialect is spoken at home.
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