1. How to identify speech sound disorders from organic causes of impaired speech production:
a. History taking: to exclude delayed developmental milestones, sensori-neural hearing loss, cleft palate, and dysarthria. (strong recommendation)
b. Thorough general and otolaryngological examination. (strong recommendation)
2. Speech sound assessment: formal language and articulation tests to assess language and phonology, followed by:
a. Phonetic transcription for the phonological errors and any special context where they occur. (strong recommendation)
b. Identify error pattern: omission, substitution, or distortion. (strong recommendation)
c. Stimulability. (strong recommendation)
d. Intelligibility. (strong recommendation)
3. Treatment options:
a. Contextual therapy: this approach utilizes that speech sounds are produced in syllable- based contexts in connected speech and some phonemic/phonetic contexts can facilitate correct production of a particular sound. (conditional recommendation)
b. Contrast therapy: minimal opposition, maximal opposition, or multiple opposition therapy. (strong recommendation)
c. Cycle approach: the child is provided with a practice on a given target for a predetermined period, before moving to another target for a predetermined period, and then cycles again. (strong recommendation)
d. Metaphone therapy: bringing about phonological change through increasing the metalinguistic awareness. (conditional recommendation)
e. Naturalistic intelligibility intervention: naturalistic intervention refers to the notion that phonological disorders should be corrected in communication situations that resemble everyday life. (strong recommendation)