What is often the primary focus of speech therapy for children with articulation disorders?

The primary focus of speech therapy for children with articulation disorders is correcting speech sounds. Articulation disorders involve difficulties in the production of specific sounds, which can lead to speech that is difficult to understand. The goal of therapy in such cases is to help children accurately produce the sounds they struggle with, thereby improving their overall speech clarity and communication effectiveness.

Correcting speech sounds involves various techniques and exercises tailored to the child's unique needs. These may include auditory discrimination tasks, where children practice hearing and distinguishing between similar sounds, or physical strategies that help them learn the correct mouth movements for articulation. Ensuring that children can correctly articulate sounds is crucial for their developmental progress in both spoken language and social interaction, as clear speech is foundational for effective communication.

Other options, while important aspects of language development, are not the primary focus when addressing articulation disorders. Improving social skills, enhancing vocabulary, and expanding narrative skills are generally targeted in different contexts of speech and language therapy where those specific deficits are present rather than in the direct remediation of speech sound production.