Speech/Language Services

Hello students, parents, and teachers! Many different areas are targeted and covered by a speech language specialist. Below is a brief summary of each of the different areas:

Speech

Articulation: A student may have difficulty producing a certain sound or sounds (such as saying "thoup" for "soup" or "wabbit" for "rabbit").

Phonology: A student may have difficulty with certain patterns of sounds (such as leaving off the beginning or ending of words, or one sound in consonant clusters such as saying "top" for "stop").

Fluency/Stuttering: A student may struggle at times to get a word out, or may repeat part or whole words.

Voice : Everyone has a different and unique voice. Voice can become a problem due to variations in pitch, loudness, and/or quality. The best examples of voice abnormalities would be extreme hoarseness, nasal quality, or vocal abuse through excessive coughing or yelling.

**A doctor’s prescription must be obtained before voice therapy can begin.

Receptive/Expressive Language

A receptive language impairment is characterized by difficulty understanding language, and an expressive language impairment is characterized by difficulty expressing language. A child is considered to have a receptive and/or expressive impairment if he/she uses one or more of the following patterns that fall below or are different from others at the same age.

Morphology: The child’s use of the smallest units of meaning in language. Examples would be the use of verb tenses, plurals, etc.

Semantics: The ability to comprehend meaning from words.

Syntax: The ability to apply grammatical rules in language. Examples would be negation, interrogatives, etc.

Pragmatics: A student may have difficulty understanding and using social communication. This may mean they have difficulty knowing what is appropriate to say and when, reading other people's nonverbal cues, and interacting with others.

If you have any questions about speech/language services, please feel free to contact me at any time!

Below you will find some helpful handouts and tips related to speech and language. By hovering over the "Menu" tab at the top right corner of this page, you can access the monthly homework calendar with one speech/language activity per day.