What is a disorder?

You may ask yourself, what is it that my child needs? Does my child need speech therapy? Does my child have a language delay? A speech language pathologist can help with the listed disorders below.

Apraxia- Often called CAS, childhood apraxia of speech is an uncommon speech disorder. A child with CAS does not always say words the same way every time, may demonstrate difficulty making accurate oral movements, tends to put the stress on the wrong syllable or word, distorts or changes sounds, and/or can say shorter words more clearly than longer words.

Articulation Disorder-Errors (e.g., distortions and substitutions) occur in production of individual speech sounds at the conversation level past a certain age. The errors are not rule based.

Expressive Language Delay-Difficulty verbally expressing wants, needs, and thoughts clearly. Children with expressive language only delays exhibit delayed vocabulary acquisition and often demonstrate slow development of sentence structure. A child may have difficulty asking questions, naming objects, putting words together into sentences, and using correct pronouns like "he" or "her".

Receptive Language Delay- Difficulty understanding spoke language. Children with receptive language delays demonstrate difficulty understanding what people mean when using gestures, like shrugging or nodding, following directions, answering questions, answer questions correctly, and pointing to objects and pictures.

Social Communication Disorder-Difficulty with the use of verbal and nonverbal language for social purposes. When conversing with friends and family members, it is difficult for the child to change communication style to match the context or needs of the listener, follow rules for storytelling, understand nonverbal expressions such as body language, tone of voice, and facial expressions, understand what is not explicitly stated, and know how to take turns when talking with others.

Phonology Disorder- Speech that is characterized by errors that are predictable and rule-based (e.g., consonant cluster deletion, fronting, stopping, and final consonant deletion) that affect more than one sound. A trained speech language pathologist can differentiate between articulation and phonological disorders.

Executive Functioning Disorder- The inability to effectively plan, problem-solve, organize, and execute time management skills to complete tasks.