With approximately 7.5 million individuals in the United States expressing difficulty in articulating and using their voices, speech disorders are more common than one would think — particularly among children.
Here are some of the most common speech disorders in the United States:

Apraxia
Apraxia is a motor-oral speech disorder that is the result of an intersection of issues involving motor coordination and motor planning. When someone with Apraxia tries to speak, they are unable to produce speech sounds correctly because of a disconnect between the muscles and structures in the mouth and the brain.

Articulation Disorders
Articulation disorders affect how people enunciate their words. For example, many children have difficulty with the articulation of r, and will instead pronounce their r’s as w’s. Individuals with articulation disorders also sometimes omit sounds or add sounds to words. Some also lisp, which entails a replacement of the s sound with a th sound.

Stuttering
Stuttering is a speech disorder that affects roughly 3 million Americans. Stuttering interrupts fluent speech, and entails the repetition of of the beginning, middle, or end of the word. Sometimes, it even entails holding one sound for a long time.

And regardless of how mild, it is often recommended that early intervention speech therapy takes place. Even the most mild of hearing loss can affect a child’s ability to properly engage in their studies, as they can miss as much as 50% of a classroom discussion. In addition, early speech therapy saves money; for every $1 spent in early ages, caretakers and parents can save as much as $7 in education later on.

Children can begin engaging with speech therapy by seeking an expert speech therapist and by participating in various speech and articulation activities. Speech and articulation activities are fun and engaging ways for children and adults alike to practice speech articulation and pronunciation.

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