November 09, 2015

Articulation and Phonological Therapy Approaches: How to Choose

29 minutes

Articulation Therapy or Phonological Therapy: Which Therapy Approach to Use

Which therapy approach should you use when a child struggles to say sounds correctly?

Articulation Therapy Approach?

Phonological Therapy Approach?

Something else?

This page will explain the difference between an articulation therapy approach and a phonological therapy approach (along with a few others). We’ll also help you decide which approach is right for each client you work with.

Speech Sound Curriculums

Complete Curriculums for Articulation, Phonology, Motor Speech, and Mumbling

View the Speech CurriculumsSpeech Sound Screening Checklist:

There are four main approaches to working on speech sounds with children and teens.

Use the following checklist to determine which path is most appropriate for each client:

Download the Printable Screening Checklist Inside our CurriculumArticulation Therapy ApproachChoose this if the individual has difficulty with specific speech sounds, producing them incorrectly or with noticeable distortions.

This is the best pathway for traditional sound-by-sound therapy.

In articulation therapy, we focus on teaching children how to produce individual speech sounds correctly, starting with isolated sounds and gradually working up to using them in words, sentences, and conversation. This structured approach helps build muscle coordination and sound awareness, making speech clearer and more intelligible over time.

Choose the Articulation Therapy Approach if the Individual:

Says specific sounds incorrectly

Has certain sounds that are distorted or sound different than they should (such as a lisp)

Articulation Curriculum

A Structured Program for Using the Articulation Approach to Speech Therapy

View the Articulation CurriculumPhonological Therapy Approach

For children who have phonological processes, or problems with entire classes of sounds

These children are often difficult to understand due to many sound errors

All children use phonological processes up to certain ages but they disappear between 3-5 years

Therapy differs from articulation because you don’t start with sounds in isolation, you start with minimal pairs of whole words to show the difference between the correct production and the child’s error

Therapy Phases: Auditory discrimination, production at the single word level, phrase, sentence, unstructured conversation, structured conversation

Phonology Curriculum

A Structured Program for Using the Phonological Approach to Speech Therapy

View the Phonology CurriculumCycles Therapy Approach to Phonology

For children who meet the following criteria:

Highly unintelligible (very difficult to understand)

Frequently leave out or omit speech sounds

Replace some sounds with other sounds

Don’t use very many different consonant sounds

Instead of working on one phonological process until it is mastered, the children works on each process for a few sessions before moving on to the next. Then, processes are cycled through and targeted again

This approach is supposed to mirror typical phonological development

Click Here to Learn More About Using the Cycles Approach

Cycles Approach Materials and Course

A Structured Program for Using the Cycles Approach to Phonology

View the Cycles CurriculumMotor Speech Therapy Approach

Motor speech disorders, such as childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) and dysarthria, affect a child’s ability to plan, coordinate, and produce speech sounds accurately. Unlike articulation or phonological disorders, which stem from difficulties with specific sounds or patterns, motor speech disorders are rooted in challenges with motor planning, sequencing, and execution of movements needed for clear speech. These difficulties can result in inconsistent speech errors, trouble producing longer words, difficulty transitioning between sounds, and even physical struggle during speech production.

Intervention for motor speech disorders focuses on building motor planning skills, increasing speech accuracy and consistency, and supporting smooth and natural speech movements. Therapy in this pathway follows a structured, motor-based approach that emphasizes repetition, multisensory cueing, and carefully sequenced speech practice. Unlike traditional articulation therapy, which focuses on individual sounds, motor speech therapy targets the movement between sounds to improve speech fluency and intelligibility.

Motor Speech Curriculum

A Structured Program for Helping Children with Motor Speech Problems

View the Motor Speech CurriculumMumbling Therapy Approach

Mumbling occurs when speech is unclear, slurred, or too quiet, making it difficult for others to understand. Children who mumble may drop sounds, speak too quickly, or fail to fully articulate words, often without realizing it. While their speech may technically be correct, the lack of clarity, volume, or articulation can interfere with communication, leading to frustration in academic and social settings.

The goal of this Curriculum is to help children recognize when their speech is unclear and develop strategies to improve clarity and volume. Unlike articulation or phonology therapy, which focuses on correcting specific speech sound errors, mumbling therapy targets overall speech clarity, awareness, and self-monitoring. This process involves intentional over articulation, cued corrections, and ultimately independent self-correction in conversation.

Mumbling Curriculum

A Structured Program for Helping Children and Teens who Mumble

View the Mumbling CurriculumOther Speech Sound Therapy Approaches

Core Word Therapy Approach: Good for children with very severe speech problems (like severe childhood apraxia of speech) or those with limited attention for drill and practice. Also helpful for children who make very slow progress in speech or who only say a few words because of their speech problemsA short list of common words that the child mis-pronounces is assembled

These words are practiced in isolation and then the child gets to play with whatever he wants (as long as he will talk with the therapist). When those words come up in conversation, they are practiced with correct production

Contextual Utilization: Pair the target sound in syllables with other sounds that will make it easier for the child to produce it (For example, production of a “t” may be facilitated in the context of a high front vowel)

Minimal Oppositions Contrast Therapy: also known as “minimal pairs” therapy, uses pairs of words that differ by only one phoneme or single feature signaling a change in meaning, in an effort to establish contrasts not present in the child’s phonological system

Maximal Oppositions Contrast Therapy: uses pairs of words in which one speech sound known and produced by the child is contrasted with a maximally opposing sound not known or produced by the child

Treatment of the Empty Set: similar to maximal opposition contrasts, but uses pairs of words containing two maximally opposing sounds that are unknown to the child—ideally, an obstruent with a sonorant (e.g., /l/ vs. /s/

Multiple Oppositions Contrast Therapy: a variation of the minimal opposition contrast approach that uses pairs of words contrasting a child’s error sound with three or four strategically selected sounds that reflect both maximal classification and maximal distinction

Distinctive Feature Therapy: Target distinctive features that are missing in the child’s repertoire (frication, nasality, voicing, and place of articulation)

Metaphon Therapy: Metaphon therapy is designed to teach metaphonological awareness, the awareness of the phonological structure of language. You teach the child about phonological rules, like the difference between noisy and quiet sounds for voiced vs. voiceless

Naturalistic Speech Intelligibility Intervention: During natural activities, the child’s errors are recast when the child is most likely to repeat them but the child is not demanded to do so

More Information on the Additional Approaches Here: https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/articulation-and-phonology/#collapse_6

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: At the last ASHA convention I went to, I purchased a double-wide booth so I could fill it with inflatable lounge chairs and phone chargers to create a hangout space. Did you see me there???

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