South Tyneside Assessment of Phonology

The South Tyneside Assessment of Phonology is a quick screening test of speech sounds. It is used by the speech and language therapist to assess your child’s speech in order to determine what sounds your child is struggling with. The assessment can be used on all children aged 3+ who are struggling with producing the correct speech sounds.

Speech and language therapists can help children develop the correct sounds needed to produce words in a manner that can be understood by others. Speech and language therapists can use the information gained from the assessment to create a therapy programme that is unique to your child and concentrates specifically on the sounds your child is struggling with.

• Can be used to identify phonological difficulties, delay or disorder.
• Can be used to identify an articulation disorder.
• Colourful cartoon illustrated assessment that engages children.

The South Tyneside Assessment of Phonology will help speech and language therapist assess your child’s speech and identify any difficulties that your child may experience. The information from the assessment can be used to create a therapy programme that targets the specific sounds identified.

Find out more…

• What will the South Tyneside Assessment of Phonology assess?
• Why is a South Tyneside Assessment of Phonology needed?
• Typical conditions that require a South Tyneside Assessment of Phonology
• What information will I receive following a South Tyneside Assessment of Phonology?
• Treatment following a South Tyneside Assessment of Phonology
• Summary

The South Tyneside Assessment of Phonology assesses children’s phonological system at word level. It looks at children’s pronunciation of all consonant sounds and some cluster sounds in all positions of a word i.e., at word initial, word medial and word final. For example the sound /p/ at:

• Word initial = pan
• Word medial = sleeping
• Word final = cup

The assessment requires children to name cartoon illustrations of common everyday items.

It is often difficult for people to understand children who have difficulties with their speech. Often children’s speech can be unclear as children may miss out sounds, replace sounds or simplify words. This can make it difficult to determine what it is they are trying to say. Children can often become very aware of their difficulties leading them to avoid speaking with unfamiliar adults, their peers and siblings. Speech difficulties can also impact a child’s confidence and cause them to become frustrated. Difficulties with speech can impact a child’s literacy, reading and academic development if early intervention isn’t put into place.

The South Tyneside Assessment of Phonology helps to determine:

• What speech difficulties your child is experiencing.
• If the difficulties are a phonological delay, phonological disorder or a articulation disorder.
• What phonological errors your child is making.
• The impact of the speech difficulties on your child’s communication skills.

The result from the assessment can help the speech and language therapist create a therapy programme that is specific to your child’s speech difficulties and strengths. Speech and language therapy can help children produce more clear speech by providing therapy for the individual speech sounds your child is struggling to produce or to eliminate the errors they are making when producing a word. Speech and language therapy aims on increasing speech skills as well as overall communication skills of your child.

Below are some of the common conditions the South Tyneside Assessment of Phonology is used for:

• Acquired head / brain injury
• Cerebral palsy
• Cleft lip and palate
• Developmental delay
• Dysarthria
• Developmental verbal dyspraxia
• Down's syndrome
• Stroke

Our speech and language therapists help all children, including children with a variety of conditions and difficulties as well as those children who have not yet been diagnosed or identified with a specific condition. The South Tyneside Assessment of Phonology will help to identify which individual sounds or clusters your child is finding difficult. The assessment will also help to identify how your child’s difficulties may be impacting their communication skills. Our speech and language therapists aim to provide an individualised therapy programme that is specific to your child’s difficulties goals and motivators.

Following the South Tyneside Assessment of Phonology our speech and language therapist can provide you with a summary of the assessment and the results gained. After an assessment you can request a detailed report about the information that was gained from the assessment. The report will explain how the difficulties are impacting your child’s communication skills and quality of life. The speech and language therapists will also give recommendations as well as a therapy plan in the report.

Some of the available speech therapy treatments are listed below:

• Speech intervention programmes.
• Cued articulation.
• Core vocabulary.
• Oro-motor exercises.
• Multi-sensory therapy.
• Specific speech sound intervention.

We offer a wide range of treatments, if you feel that your child could benefit from a certain therapy programme contact our speech and language therapist for more details. Email office@sltforkids.co.uk or call us on 0330 088 2298.

The South Tyneside Assessment of Phonology is used by the speech and language therapist to screen children’s speech skills for phonological difficulties, delay or disorder as well as an articulation disorder.

Our speech and language therapist will assess your child’s speech skills and identify where their difficulties lie. The information from the assessment will be used by our speech and language therapist to create your child’s therapy programme. If you would like more information on the assessment please email office@sltforkids.co.uk or call on 0330 088 2298.