Treating substitution and distortion among adults with functional articulation disorders

Abstract

Objective To explore the clinical characteristics of adults with functional articulation disorders (FADs) and suitable speech training methods. Methods Phonological evaluation was carried out for 37 adults with functional articulation disorders whose clinical characteristics were analyzed, then targeted speech training was established. Results The main erroneous articulation patterns of the adults were substitution, followed by distortion and omission. The erroneous articulation types included forward movement of the tongue (19 cases), insufficient aspiration (11 cases), lateralization (10 cases), backward movement of the tongue (7 cases), omission of consonants (7 cases), comprehensive errors (4 cases), and replacement by labiodental and lingua-palatal phonemes (3 and 2 cases respectively). Twenty-eight adults were cured, 8 adults were improved, and 1 adult showed unsatisfactory effects after 1 to 5 courses of speech training. The average speech intelligibility score increased significantly from (56.03±14.71)% before speech training to (91.22±10.10)% afterward. Conclusion The main erroneous patterns of adults with functional articulation disorders are substitution and distortion. Targeted speech training was shown to be significantly effective. Key words: Functional articulation disorders; Adults; Speech therapy