Changes in speech articulation in Finnish children from the age of 7 to 10 years

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the changes in occurrence of articulatory speech disorders in 219 schoolchildren monitored from 7 to 10 years of age, considering the effects of gender and timing of speech therapy. The number of /r/-disorders decreased, especially in the study group, whereas the number of /s/-disorders increased markedly among the controls. Correspondingly, the number of sounds produced too far anteriorly increased, while other misarticulations changed only slightly. All misarticulations tended to turn milder but at the same time they were established in both spontaneous speech and test words.