Welcome

Welcome to my speech webpage. I am a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) at Carolyn Clark Elementary School. Here you will find links to resources about language development, communication disorders, prevention, supporting bilingual development, and resources for families.

What does an SLP do?

A school Speech Language Pathologist is a credentialed professional who works on helping students who have communication disorders that adversely impact their educational performance.

What are the parts of communication that SLPs in the schools can address?

Articulation: a student's ability to produce age and culturally appropriate speech sounds, such as "R" or "S".

Voice: a student's ability to speak clearly without abnormal voice quality (hoarseness, etc.).

Fluency: a student's ability to speak smoothly. Dysfluency is a word that is used to describe stuttering.

Pragmatics: a student's ability to use age appropriate social skills such as maintaining conversations, eye contact, etc.

Language: a student's ability to either express themselves verbally (expressive language) or listen and understand what others say (receptive language).

Vocabulary: a student's ability to use and understand specific words and the relationships between words accurately.

Grammar: a student's ability to speak using appropriately organized sentences with words in the correct order.

Difference versus Disorder

We live in a wonderfully diverse world! Not all "differences" in communication are "disorders". If a student speaks another language or is exposed to another language in the community, there can be influence from one language to another. For example, certain speech sounds that are present in English are not present in other languages. A student may "mispronounce" a word in English because their other language does not contain that sound. Students may also speak in grammatically incorrect English sentences while first learning English. This is a difference between languages and not a disorder. Speech Language Pathologists are advised to treat disorders, not differences.