Speech sounds and their representation for diagnosis

The assessment of articulation disorders includes, among other things, identifying which speech sounds or sound combinations cannot yet be realized properly. To this end, it is necessary to transcribe children's utterances and thus preserve them for analysis. Transcriptions can be performed using the alphabet, or by means of phonetic or phonological transcription using the International Phonetic Association (IPA) alphabet or the extended IPA alphabet (extIPA). Articulation disorders can only be adequately documented by means of transcription; however, this requires a certain amount of practice. The main features of IPA transcription are outlined here.