This study used EPG to investigate some articulatory characteristics of affricates in ten children with functional articulation disorders. All the children had distorted productions of sibilant target ///. One assumption was that there would be perceptual and EPG similarities between the children's productions of /[/ and the fricative component of /tf/. The evidence from the majority of the children supported this view. Whilst the children showed considerable variability in their tongue-palate contact patterns for distorted productions, a general finding was that articulatory placement for the stop component of the affricate was closer to /?/ than to /t/. This was interpreted as suggesting that children may regard affricates as essentially fricatives with abrupt onsets. There was also a trend for increased tongue-palate contact for the stop component of /?/ compared to /?/.