It’s one thing to speak Spanish, it’s another thing to have field-specific vocabulary to talk about speech disorders in Spanish. Whether you are a fluent Spanish speaker, a novice Spanish speaker, or a non-Spanish speaker, as a speech-language pathologist you will need to be able to describe speech disorders in Spanish at some point in your career.

Below you’ll find several lists of words used to talk about communication development and communication disorders in Spanish. We’ve included a list of phonological processes in English and Spanish. You will also find English terms and their Spanish translations to describe articulation skills and articulation goals. These will come in handy during IEP meetings and when reviewing evaluations and progress with families.

Talking about Phonological Processes in Spanish

Let’s start with Spanish phonological processes. When talking about phonological processes in English we might share with a parent that,

Phonological processes are normal patterns that occur in developing speech due to motor constraints. Children stop using some patterns around age three and other patterns are used longer. It’s when these patterns are used past the point at which most children stop using them that they are considered a problem.

And for our Spanish-speaking parents, we might share that,

Los procesos fonológicos son patrones normales que ocurren en el desarrollo del habla  mientras que el sistema de articulación madura. Los niños dejan de usar algunos patrones alrededor de los tres años y otros patrones se usan por más tiempo. Es cuando estos patrones se usan más de lo normal que se consideran un problema.

English	Spanish
Final consonant deletion	Supresión de consonantes finales
Initial consonant deletion	Supresión de consonantes iniciales
Medial consonant deletion	Supresión de consonantes mediales
Weak syllable deletion	Supresión de sílabas átonas
Reduplication	Reduplicación
Consonant Cluster Reduction	Reducción de grupos consonánticos
Assimilation	Asimilación
Fronting	Anteriorización
Backing	Posteriorización
Gliding of liquids	Deslizamiento de consonantes líquidas
Syllable Reduction	Reducción de sílabas
Stopping	Oclusivización
Devoicing	Ensordecimiento
Voicing	Sonorización
Nasalization of vowels	Nasalización de vocales

And here’s a great chart with English and Spanish developmental norms that you can include in your reports.

This chart provides examples of different processes in English and Spanish and some guidelines for when phonological processes are suppressed. Remember that with any charts of development, there is a lot of variation in children and studies. Use them as guidelines to inform your evaluation and to guide your dynamic assessment process and evaluation of stimulability.

Phonological Processes Chart

Suppressed by:		Pattern	English Example	Spanish Example
Spanish *	English*	Syllabic Patterns
Age 3 (rare)	Age 3 (rare)	Initial Consonant Deletion	“at” for “cat”	“an” for “pan”
Age 3	Age 3	Final Consonant Deletion	“ca” for “cat”	“lapi” for “lapiz”
Age 3	Age 4	Medial Consonant Deletion	“ki-y” for “kitty”	“la-iz” for “lapis”
Age 5	Age 4	Cluster Reduction	“fat” for “flat”	“faco” for “flaco”
Age 3	Age 4	Weak Syllable Deletion	“telphone” for “telephone”	“tefono” for “telefono”
		Substitution Patterns
Age 5	Age 3	Stopping	“bat” for “fat”	“cape” for “café”
Age 3	Age 4	Fronting	“bat” for “kat”	“teso” for “queso”
Age 3	Age 3	Assimilation	“tato” for “taco”	“tato” for “taco”
Age 3	Age 3	Backing	“kat” for “bat”	“kos” for “dos”
Age 5	Age 7	Liquid Simplification	“wake” for “lake”	“wapiz” for “lapis”
NA	Age 7	Vocalization	“powah” for “power”	NA
Age 5	NA	Flap/Trill Deviation	NA	“daton” for “raton”
Age 5	Age 7	Gliding	“bwack” for “black”	“pwato” for “plato”

* Based on the work of Goldstein (Spanish) and Shriberg (English).

For more information about phonological processes in Spanish and speech disorders in Spanish, check out this ASHA article and this great resource.

Let’s talk about how we describe articulation disorders in Spanish.

With articulation, we are often describing where a sound is made and how a sound is made. In speech lingo, that’s place and manner of production. Below is a table of frequent terminology we use to talk about articulation disorders in English and Spanish.

When we talk to parents about articulation disorders we might say,

Articulation deals with the way we use our lips, tongue, and teeth to produce different sounds. When we evaluate articulation skills, we look to see if there is a particular sound or type of sound that is difficult to produce. We talk about these sounds by the place they are articulated and by the way we make them.

In Spanish, that would sound like this:

La articulación se trate de la forma en que usamos los labios, la lengua, y los dientes para producir diferentes sonidos. Cuando evaluamos las habilidades de articulación, investigamos si hay un sonido espicífico o un tipo de sonido que es difícil de producir. Hablamos de estos sonidos por el lugar en que se articulan y por la forma en que los hacen.

Chart of Articulation Terms in Spanish and English

English	Spanish
Palatal	Palatal
Velar	Velar
Fricative	Fricativa
Affricate	Africada
Voiced	Sonoro
Voiceless	Insonoro
Nasal	Nasal
Liquid	Líquido
Stop/Plosive	Oclusivo

Talking about Speech Goals in Spanish

After we talk to parents about our concerns about their child’s speech development, we talk about goals and how we are going to work on the areas of need. Here are some of the ways we talk about speech goals in Spanish.

In English, our conversation with parents might sound like this:

Your child is currently demonstrating articulation/phonology skills that are below average compared to other children his/her age. We have selected goals to address his/her areas of difficulty.

And in Spanish…

Su hijo actualmente está demostrando habilidades de articulación/fonología que están bajo del promedio en comparación con otros niños de su edad. Hemos seleccionado objetivos para ayudar con sus areas de necesidad.

Terms for Articulation Goals in Spanish and English

Articulation Goals	Metas de articulación
Discriminate correct and incorrect sounds	Distinguir los sonidos correctos e incorrectos
Produce in isolation	Producir en aislamiento
Produce in syllables	Producir en sílabas
Produce in word initial position	Producir en posición inicial de palabras
Produce in word medial position	Producir en posición medial de palabras
Produce in word final position	Producir en posición final de palabras
Produce in consonant clusters	Producir en grupos consonánticos
Use in phrases and sentences	Usar en frases y oraciones
Use consistently in conversation	Usar consistentemente durante la conversación

Spanish Stuttering Vocabulary

Fluency terms in Spanish are hard to come by and are best used with examples if you are explaining goals or processes to parents or teachers. Simply translating vocabulary might not get the meaning across because even in English, someone might not understand what we mean by revisions, and vocal tension. So use these translations of stuttering terms into Spanish to facilitate not only the use of the word but also the description of the process.

Fluency	La fluidez
Stuttering	El tartamudeo
Recite importance and value of fluency	Decir la importancia y valor de fluidez
Describe and reduce types of dysfluencies:	Describir y reducir la clase de errores de fluidez:
Revisions	Las revisiones
Fillers	Las interrupciones
Describe/demonstrate strategies that facilitate speech	Describir y demostrar estrategias que facilitan el habla
Demonstrate fluency during:	Demostrar fluidez durante:
Words	Las palabras
Sentences	Las oraciones
Reading	La lectura
Conversation	La conversación
Reduce rate to within normal limits	Reducir la velocidad del habla dentro de los límites apropiados
Maintain eye contact	Mantener contacto visual
Identify and describe secondary characteristics:	Identificar y describir caracteristicas secundarias:
Posturing	La postura
Respiration	la respiración
Facial grimaces	los gestos faciales
Vocal tension	La tensión vocal
List ways to reduce stress	Listar diferentes formas de reducir tensión
Identify/describe situations and behaviors that increase dysfluency	Identificar y describir comportamientos secundarios que incrementan los errores de fluidez
Generalize fluency outside of the therapy room	Generalizar la fluidez en lugares fuera del salón de terapia

Voice Disorder Spanish Terms

And if Spanish stuttering terms were hard to come by, what about Spanish voice disorder translations?! Just like with fluency translations, use this list to facilitate understanding in meetings when you are trying to explain why the client’s voice is different and what goals you are going to focus on to help.

Vocal Nasality

Recite and explain importance of speech goals	Decir y explicar la importancia de la meta de voz/habla
Strengthen velum by producing syllable with voiceless consonants and high vowels	Reforzar el velo del paladar al producir sílabas con consonantes sordas y vocales altas
Discriminate between appropriate voice quality and hypernasality/nasal emission	Distinguir entre la cualidad de voz apropiada e hipernasalidad/emisión nasal
Identify appropriate vocal quality in self when reading/repeating non-nasal words/sentences	Identificar en si mismo la cualidad apropiada de la voz durante actividades de lectura/repetición de palabras u oraciones que no son nasales.
Have parents rate student voice quality	Pida a los padres el favor de evaluar la cualidad de la voz del estudiante
Identify times when using inappropriate vocal quality	Identificar los momentos cuando se este usando una cualidad de voz inapropiada
Increase oral resonance by using exaggerated open mouth movements and low vowels in: Syllables, words, sentences, conversation	Aumentar resonancia oral por medio de movimientos exagerados de la boca y usando vocales bajas en: sílabas, palabras, oraciones, conversación

Voice Quality

Write or recite goal for improving vocal use	Escribir o decir la meta para mejorar el uso de la voz
Understand normal and abnormal function of the larynx	Comprender las funciones normales y anormales de la laringe Identify forms of vocal abuseIdentificar las diferentes formas de abuso de la voz
Identify and order situations where abuse occurs	Identificar y poner en orden las direrentes situaciones en que abuso de la voz puede ocurrir.
Describe strategies for controlling vocal abuse	Describir estrategias para controlar el abuso vocal
Identify and reduce hard glottal attack	Identificar y reducir el ataque glotal duro
Use the yawn/sigh approach	Describir estrategias para controlar el mal uso/abuso de la voz
Apply techniques of proper vocal use 30 minutes a day 1 hour a day gradually increasing periods	Aplicar tecnicas vocales apropiadas por 30 minutos al dia 1 hora al dia gradualmente aumentar los periodos de uso
Apply techniques of proper vocal use in school and home situations	Aplicar tecnicas de uso vocal apropiado en la escuela y en la casa

And to wrap this up, here are a few more great resources.

Talking to Spanish-speaking parents about speech disorders

The Goal Bank with Goals Written in English and Spanish

Spanish Wording for Parent Conferences

Articulation Self-Rating Charts

Communication Disorder