
Speech & Language Information
Articulation
- Appropriately using lips, mouth, tongue, and voice to produce phonemes in isolation, syllables, words, sentences, and connected speech.
Disorders:
- Speech Sound Disorder: a disorder with specific phonemes.
- Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS): difficulty coordinating, planning the sequence of movements involved in producing speech.
- Phonological Processes Disorder: consistent simplification of phoneme productions often decreasing speech intelligibility.
African American Dialect along with other dialectical differences are not considered as a disorder and are not treated. Examples:
- African American: producing /f/ for “th” (wif/with)
- Spanish: /y/ for “j’ (yump/jump)
- Haitian Creole: /h/ omission (ello/hello)
What is a Speech Sound Disorder?
A speech sound disorder (SSD) or speech disorder refers to a person who has difficulty acquiring and producing intelligible speech (articulation/phonology), fluent speech without typical dysfluent occurrences (fluency), or difficulty with volume or pitch during speech production(voice).
Disorder Types:
- Articulation: difficulty producing one or more sounds
- Phonological Disorder: consistent errors involving manner, place, position
- Motor Speech Disorder: delays due to Childhood Apraxia
- Structurally-based Speech Sound Disorder: delays due to anatomical differences
- Syndrome based Speech Sound Disorders: delays due to syndromes (i.e., Down Syndrome)
Bowen, C. (2011). Classification of children’s speech sound disorders. Retrieved from https://www/speech-language-therapy.com/index.php?option=com_content&viewarticle&id=45 on May 5, 2020.
Language
- Receptive Language: ability to understand information
- Expressive Language: ability to communicate your wants, needs, ideas, and knowledge.
- Social Language (Pragmatics): ability to use language, change language, and follow rules when conversing with others in various situations.
What is a language disorder?
A language disorder is when someone presents with weaknesses in understanding information presented to them (receptive), weaknesses with communicating their wants, needs, ideas, and knowledge and/or difficulty maintaining rules when conversing and interacting with others (social).
Language Disorder:
- Form: phonology (speech sound patterns) morphology (how words are formed), syntax grammar and structure.
- Content: semantics (meaning of words)
- Function: pragmatics (social rules)
Voice
Sound created through the use of vocal folds and breathing. Voice is manipulated by
- Volume: loudness
- Pitch: high or low
- quality: harsh, hoarse
A voice disorder is often determined by the individual’s concern regarding an abnormal voice. Voice disorders are treated following a medical evaluation.
Fluency
- The smooth rhythm to sound, syllable, word, and connected speech productions without repetitions (repeating words or sounds), prolongations (stretching sounds/words), or blocks (difficulty producing words).
- Speech Rhythm
- Rate
Pragmatics
The rules we follow when communicating with others including:
- Purpose of using language: greeting, informing…
- Using appropriate language based on the situation
- Following conversation rules: taking turns, knowing personal space, using body language…
Bilingual
Bilingual refers to ability to communicate in more than one language. Children have a stronger ability to learn multiple languages. When considering speech & language delays, often each language has to be assessed to obtain a true picture of a child’s language abilities. Children can present with:
- weakness in their native language and 2nd language
- appropriate development of native language and weakness in 2nd language
- weakness in their native language and appropriate development in 2nd language