We are going to discuss articulation and phonological disorders

After watching Christina Zapata’s video on Articulation Vs. Phonological Disorders it became clear that the difference between articulation and phonological disorders comes down to the basics of phonetic versus phonemic. Articulation disorders occur when a student is having phonetic difficulties and phonological disorders are when they are having phonemic difficulties. These disorders are two separate disorders and understanding which one is taking place is crucial in providing the right service. 

So with some help here is the definitions of phonetic and phonemic.
             Dr. Caroline Bowen defined phonetic development as the development of the ability to                 articulate individual speech sounds or ‘phones’. The phonetic level takes care of the motor (articulatory) act of producing the vowels and consonants so that we have a repertoire all the sounds we need in order to speak our language(s).

             In Heward et al. (2017) phonemic awareness is defined as the ability to hear and                             manipulate the sounds of spoken language; critical prerequisite for learning to read. A child with phonemic awareness can orally blend sounds to make a word; isolate beginning, middle, and ending sounds in words; segment words into component sounds; and manipulate sounds within words. (p. G-9)

Articulation Disorder:
Articulation is more of a motor based disorder. According to Amy from Amy Speech Language Therapy, “the phonetic level is the motor act of producing the vowels and consonants (the sounds), so that we have an inventory all the sounds we need in order to speak our language(s)” (Amy, 2020). Christina Zapata explained that articulation can be classified into four areas, substitution, omission, distortions, and additions or acronym SODA. According to Heward et al., (2017):

• Substitutions. Children sometimes substitute one sound for another, as in saying “train” for “crane” or “doze” for “those.” Children who substitute sounds are often certain they have said the correct word and may resist correction. Sound substitutions can cause considerable confusion for the listener.
• Omissions. Children may omit certain sounds, as in saying “cool” for “school.” They may drop consonants from the ends of words, as in “pos” for “post.” Most of us leave out sounds at times, but an extensive omission problem can make speech unintelligible.
• Distortions. A speech sound is distorted when it sounds more like the intended phoneme than another speech sound but is conspicuously wrong. The /s/ sound, for example, is relatively difficult to produce; children may produce the word “sleep” as “schleep,” “zleep,” or “thleep.” Some speakers have a lisp; others a whistling /s/. Distortions can cause misunderstanding, although parents and teachers often become accustomed to them.
• Additions. The addition of extra sounds makes comprehension difficult. For example, a child might say “buhrown” for “brown” or “hamber” for “hammer. (p. 267)

Phonological Disorders:
"A child with a phonological disorder has the ability to produce a given sound but does so inconsistently; she produces the same sound correctly in some instances and incorrectly in others" (Heward et al., 2017, p. 268).
According to Dr. Houghton there are many phonological process disorders but two that are common. She stated the two that are common are velar fronting and backing.
Dr Bowen defined velar fronting "as a phonological process (phonological pattern) in which a velar consonant /k/, /ɡ/ or /ŋ/ is replaced by an alveolar consonant. So ‘colour’ sounds like ‘tulla’, ‘guy’ sounds like ‘dye’ and ‘wing’ sounds like ‘win’" (Bowen, 2011).
Dr. Bowen defined backing as:
          something that occurs when /k/, /g/ and ‘ng’ replace /t/, /d/ and /n/ respectively. ‘Tell Teddy to shut Tim’s door’ sounds like ‘Kell Keggy koo shuck Kim’s gore’, and ‘Put the red pen in the bin’ sounds like ‘Pook the reg peng in the bing’. Backing can affect any of the obstruents shown on the place-voice-manner chart below (e.g., chew = coo or goo, ship = kip or gip). Backing is not seen in typical development in English, and is not a ‘natural’ or developmental process. Any child who is backing should be referred to a speech-language pathologist for assessment. Bowen, 2011
​​As you can see, there are important differences between articulation and phonological disorders. To best help the student, the professional would need to know if it is a phonetic issue, which is an articulation, or phonemic issue, which is phonological. When the correct disorder is identified, the specific services to work on that disorder can be implemented, leading to a better success rate. 

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References:
Articulation vs Phonological. (n.d.). Retrieved June 7, 2020, from https://www.amyspeechlanguagetherapy.com/articulation-vs-phonological.html

Zapata, Christina, M.S. CCC-SLP [Speech Therapy Education]. (2019 February 9). Articulation Vs. Phonological Disorders [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/G-chx6_NCp0

Bowen, C. (n.d.). Citing this Glossary. Retrieved June 7, 2020, from https://www.speech-language-therapy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14:glossary&catid=9:resources&Itemid=118

Heward, W., Alber-Morgan, S., & Konrad, M. (2017). Exceptional Children: An Introduction to Special Education (11th ed.). Boston: Pearson.