Speech Sound Disorder

Speech sound disorder (SSD) is a generic term for a range of impairments affecting the ability to produce easily intelligible speech. Surface speech errors include multiple omissions, additions, substitutions, and/or distortions of the sequence of sounds that make up words. Around 10% of all children are identified as speech impaired at school entry, although symptoms are often apparent from 2 years of age. Identified etiologies associated with developmental SSD include sensory and motor impairments, craniofacial anomalies, and intellectual and psychiatric disorders, which are sometimes related to genetic syndromes. SSD can be acquired due to head injury, stroke, or diseases of the nervous system that can occur in childhood. There is, however, no known cause for most cases of impaired speech.

SSD is a significant symptom of ...