About Speech and Language

What is Speech & Language?

Language - the system of rules defining sound/word/gesture meanings, how we make up sounds/words/gestures, how we combine them, and how we use them to interact and communicate with one another.

Receptive Language - the comprehension of language presented by any means (i.e. spoken, gestured, etc).

Expressive Language - the expression of language by any means; spoken, gestured/signed, etc.

Speech/Articulation - the oral form of language, or the actual production or articulation of spoken language.

Phonological Processing - the rules by which children acquire sounds and groups of sounds within spoken language.  The process by which children simplify adult speech as they learn to speak.

What is Disordered Speech &/or Language?

Articulation delays or disorders - difficulty formulating or combining sounds; generally characterized by substitutions (i.e. tup/cup), distortions (i.e. ship/sip), or omissions (i.e. ca/cat)

Phonological Processing delays or disorders/ Speech sound system disorders - immature or atypical patterns of errors within one’s speech (e.g. a child drops all final consonants)

Fluency disorders / Stuttering - consistent and abnormal disruptions/breaks in the natural flow of speech; generally characterized by whole or part-word repetitions, hesitations, interjections, sound prolongations,blocks, and often accompanied by physical characteristics (i.e. visible tension in face, jaw, and neck)

Specific Language Impairment/Language delays/disorders -  communication delay or disorder characterized by reduced comprehension and/or expression of language; can be characterized by deficits in vocabulary development (semantics), sentence formation/structure (syntax), word formation (morphology), or rules of language use (pragmatics).

Feeding / Swallowing disorders - Reduced ability or inability to move food through the different stages of the swallow function (from the mouth through the esophagus) without compromising one’s airway protection.

Aphasia - acquired language disorder due to damage to the brain.  May be due to stroke, traumatic brain injuries, brain tumors, or other damage to the language centers of the brain.

Dementia - symptoms related to memory loss or overall acquired cognitive impairment.  Often progressive and sometimes irreversible.  Can be caused by numerous disorders of the brain and nervous system.

Developmental Apraxia of Speech - motor planning disorder of the nervous system, characterized by difficulty initiating, producing, and sequencing sounds in syllables and words.

Apraxia - motor speech disorder due to nervous system damage.  Characterized by difficulty initiating, producing, and sequencing sounds in syllables and words.

Dysarthria - disordered speech due to brain injury affecting the muscles of the mouth, face, and respiratory system.  Muscles may be weakened with limited or no movement affecting speech production.