Introduction. Phonetic and phonological system of the healthy members of one
linguistic community is fully formed around 8 years of age. The auditory and
articulatory habits are established with age and tend to be more difficult to
be upgraded and completed later. Material and Methods. The research was done
as a cross-sectional study, conducted at the preschool institution ?Radosno
detinjstvo? and primary school ?Branko Radicevic? in Novi Sad. It included 66
children of both genders, aged 6 to 8. The quality of articulation was
determined according to the Global Articulation Test by working with each
child individually. Results. In each individual vowel, plosive, nasal,
lateral and fricative, the quality of articulation was statistically
significantly better in the first graders compared to the preschool children
(p<0.01). In each affricate, except for the sound /c/, the quality of
articulation was statistically significantly better in the first graders than
in the preschool children (p<0.01). The quality of articulation of all speech
sounds was statistically significantly better in the first graders than in
the preschool children (p<0.01). Discussion and Conclusion. The most common
disorder of articulation is distortion, while only substitution and
substitution associated with distortion are less common. Omission does not
occur in children from 6 to 8 years of age. Girls have slightly better
quality of articulation. The articulatory disorders are more common in
preschool children than in children who are in the first grade of primary
school. The most commonly mispronounced sounds belong to the group of
affricates and fricatives.