Dear Parents,

Thank you for visiting this page.  This information should help you understand what speech and language is and how you can help your child.
I hope you find it helpful.
 
Articulation

Fluency

Voice

Language

articulation Articulation is how a child produces sounds to form words.  There are substitutions of one sound for another, omitting sounds altogether, distortion of sounds (the sound may be close but not quite right), and additions of sounds not normally present. ***Some causes of articulation errors may include poor listening skills, often due to middle ear infections, dental problems, a general delay in maturation, or specific physical problems that affect the student's ability to move his/her lips and/or tongue.

fluency Fluency (stuttering) is the breaks or disfluencies in one's speech.  it can be characterized as: · repetitions - repeats sound (g-g-go), syllables (af-af-after), words (he-he-he), phrases (he went-he went home); · prolongations - prolongs sounds (gooooooo away); · blocks/hesitations - (______don't do that); · interjections - (I went home and uh did my uh homework); some children may also exhibit secondary behaviors (eye blinks, head nodding, etc.)

voice Voice disorders involve loudness, pitch, phonation, and resonance of speech. ·  Loudness is how soft or loud someone speaks in various situations. · Pitch is the range (how high or how low)  and inflection (monotone) of one's voice. · Phonatory quality is hoarseness, harshness, and breathiness. Do they lose their voice by the end of the day Resonance includes nasality (or denasality) of the quality of the voice.

language Language concerns involve either comprehension or expression during communication. · Expressive language is the communicative ability or effectiveness of speech. It includes grammar, syntax (word order), relating ideas, communicating in logical sequence, pragmatics (how we use language), use of vocabulary words.  A child may demonstrate word finding problems, difficulty answering open-ended questions, ability to ask questions, ability to clarify information or to gain help, difficulty initiating, maintaining, or closing conversations, and turn taking strategies. · Receptive language is the understanding of both basic and complex language.  These skills include verbal and written comprehension, understanding of idioms, figurative language, and inferencing abilities, understanding of vocabulary words, understanding of oral or written directions.  The child may exhibit difficulty with language relationships such as categorization, opposites, classification of same or different, and time.