Question

Discuss perceptions of individuals who have articulation/phonological disorders throughout the lifespan and how these perceptions change (i.e., it may be cute in preschool, but will likely be made fun of in the upper grades). Why do perceptions change and how might this affect the individual.

Answer 1

Perception refers to the stimuli that our senses gain from the surrounding. However, it includes the entire process of analysing the environmental stimuli and deciding the actions to be taken accordingly. Perceptual process helps people to gain insight about those components of the environment. Perception comprises of five senses which are touch, smell, taste, sight and sound.

Perception is a mechanism which enables a person to understand and organise his thoughts and ideas pertaining to his or her environment. This complex psychological process might not be the same for two different persons. Behaviour of a person depends on how he perceives reality rather than what the reality actually is. According to Joseph Reitz, "perception includes all those processes by which an individual receives an information about his environment- seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling."

An articulation disorder can be termed as motoric errors that can occur at any age of an individual. And they are most commonly seen in children whose articulators are not properly developed. Articulation disorder may be defined as difficulty in producing a single or a few sounds with no pattern. A phonological disorder is a simplification of the sound system that also affects the intelligibility. A phonological disorder is a child's difficulty at their phonemic level. The perception of the individual who have articulation/phonological disorders may be fear or feeling of less confident.