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Students with articulation problems typically have difficulty producing one or more sounds correctly. They might substitute one sound for another (e.g. "dirt" rather than "dart"). They may omit sounds or even syllables (e.g. "pay" for "pace"). They might also distort sounds (e.g. a lisp). Articulation problems may reduce the students intelligibility, inhibit the students classroom participation, result in social problems, or any combination of the above.

Frequently, students with articulation problems (currently or previously) will also have problems with reading and spelling skills which rely on the student's grasp of letter-sound correspondance. Occasionally, students have little or no speech and may require a system to augment their communication abilities.

Parents of a middle school student with articulation errors may feel concern that the problem is not being addressed or discouraged by slow or limited progress. It can seem frustrating when a student produces the most familiar words inaccuately (e.g. birfday for birthday) while producing more recently aquired words (e.g. anthem) accurately. Sometimes, such a student finds reminders to be aware of the way he or she speaks helpful. On the other hand, the way a person speaks eventually becomes part of his or her identity. Once this happens, the student may bristle at attempts to alter speech patterns that he or she has accepted.

Students who are aware of their articulation flaws and are personally motivated to change them are the most likely to succeed in doing so. Students who simply want out of "speech" or want an extrinsic reward may succeed but more slowly. The role of the parent is to encourage and support a students desire to change his or her articulation. One way to do this is to always make clear that you value what your child says and want to understand them. Efforts to clarify speech then focus on a postitive factor, your desire to understand, and may appear less critical of your child.