Articulation
Articulation is a child's ability to produce speech sounds.
How do you test Articulation?
Children between the ages of two years and nine years are given a standardized test, a speech sample is collected and analyzed, an observation is completed, and the child's parent, teacher and/or caregiver are interviewed. Usually, the oral structures are examined for presence, strength, range of motion, and coordination. Children over the age of nine years do not need a standardized test, but do need two speech samples, an observation, and interviews. An oral exam is generally completed, also.
What does "Qualify" mean?
To receive services through the school, your child needs to initially meet State eligibility criteria. For Minnesota, the Speech Clinician and another adult need to find the child's articulation interferes with communication and the articulation error can not be the result of the influence of a foreign language. For children under the age of nine years, the child needs to earn a score greater than 2 Standard Deviations below the Mean on a standardized articulation test (think bottom 2 percentile). For children older than nine years of age, the standardized test does not need to be completed, but the child must demonstrate at least one sound consistently in error in two speech samples.