Are speech and language disorders the same thing?
Speech is the motor act of speaking orally. It is how we say both sounds and words. Our brain sequences our articulators to produce the sounds, words, and sentences that make up language. Speech includes articulation (how the mouth, lips, and tongue work to make sounds), voice (how the vocal folds and breath work to produce sounds), and fluency (the rhythm of our speech).
Language is the ability to process thoughts into words and then use those words to share ideas or achieve a goal. It refers to both the words we use and how we use them. Language includes the meaning of words, the synthesis of new words, how words go together, and what should be said at different times. Reading and writing are both language skills.
A person can have trouble with speech, language, or both. An evaluation by a speech-language pathologist can help to identify the areas of trouble so that proper treatment can be designed.
For more information, please visit: https://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/language_speech.htm
At what age should I expect my child to talk? Should I wait until my child is two years-old to have an evaluation?
Today we know the sequence that infants who are exposed to any of the world’s languages should begin to “talk,” as well as the average age they should begin to do so. Your child will first coo (by 3 months of age), then babble and use jargon (more complex babbling with sentence-like sounds) (4-6 months of age), then say first words (7 months to 1 year of age) and combine two-word sentence-like utterances (1-2 years of age). For more details on these language milestones go to http://www.asha.org/
In addition, please don’t hesitate to contact us for more information or with any further questions.
What is expressive language and receptive language?
Expressive language is one’s ability to verbally express their ideas, thoughts, feelings, and wants in grammatically acceptable utterances and vocabulary.
Receptive language is one’s ability to comprehend and process language, i.e. the ability to understand what others are saying.
What are the credentials next to your name represent? Is this something I should look for when hiring a therapist?
The majority of speech-language pathologists in the United States have the credentials “CCC-SLP” (Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech Language Pathology) after their names. This represents our national certifications, as well as any additional training, fellowship year(s), and exams that the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA) requires.
I was told my child could become language delayed because we are raising him bilingual. Is this true?
Bilingual children all over the word develop language milestones within the normal developmental range. Depending on the exposure to each of the two languages, development in one or both languages may vary. Research has found that at the beginning of the kindergarten year, the average monolingual child has a vocabulary of about 5,000 words. The average bilingual child begins kindergarten with approximately 2,500 words in language one (English) and approximately 2,500 words in language two (e.g. Spanish). By the end of the kindergarten year, the typically developing bilingual child has a vocabulary of about 10,000 words (an average of 5,000 words in each language).
My child has had a few ear infections. Should this concern me?
Ear infections, or Otitis Media (the build-up of fluid in the middle ear), distorts the sounds a child hears. If your child has frequent bouts of Otitis Media, they are not hearing speech sounds clearly. This can potentially impact language development if hearing is chronically distorted. Tests to evaluate both hearing and language are available and should be sought out if you believe that one or both may be impacted. Please don’t hesitate to contact us for more information, or if you have any further questions.
My child had psychological testing and we were told she has “executive function” difficulties. What does that mean and what can we do to help her?
The narrative may go something like this: In the early grades, your child was successful in school. However, around fourth grade you noticed a change. Your child started to appear disorganized, unmotivated, procrastinating – or even lazy. Psychological testing then tells you that your child has “executive function” difficulties.
Executive functioning refers to a group of skills that allow a person to manage thoughts, actions, and emotions so that they may plan, organize, and complete tasks. It enables planning, time management, sustained attention, task initiation and completion, emotional regulation, self-regulation, and organization. Essentially, executive function skills enable effective attention and self-regulation.
Intervention in this area will teach your child strategies and introduce a new way to think in order to create the best learning environment at home and school. Your child will learn a better way to plan projects, organize assignments, prioritize, and more. In addition, you, as the child’s guardian, will be taught ways to support the skills developed in therapy sessions.
What is the difference between articulation and phonological disorders?
Both articulation and phonological disorders are speech sound disorders, meaning that they refer to difficulties producing accurate speech sounds. You may hear omitted or distorted sounds. Substitutions of these sounds may also be present.
Articulation disorders are characterized by trouble physically producing a sound or sounds. Articulation errors may include sound substitution (making a “w” sound for an “r” sound and saying “wabbit” for “rabbit”), leaving out sounds (saying “nana” instead of “banana”), and a distortion of the “s” sound (pronouncing “s” like “th” and saying “thip” instead of “sip”).
Phonological disorders are characterized by set patterns of sound errors. These patterns may include substituting sounds made in the back of the mouth (g,k) for ones made in the front (d,t) (so that “dot” is pronounced “got”), simplifying strings of consecutive consonants in a word (“string” becomes “sting” or “sing”), and replacing unvoiced sounds (p, t, k) with voiced sounds (b, d, g) (so that “pie” is pronounced “bye”).
The biggest diagnostic difference between an articulation disorder and a phonological disorder is that an articulation disorder has no clear pattern in the difficulty of producing one or a few sounds. With a phonological disorder, there are set patterns of sound errors that can be analyzed and grouped together, and the errors themselves influence the intelligibility.
It was recommended that my child, recently diagnosed with dyslexia, learn cursive hand writing and write in cursive as much as possible. Why is writing in cursive important?
Struggling readers and spellers who have good intelligence and muscular strength benefit from writing in cursive. Poor spelling is often a result of making one letter when another was intended. The kinesthetic and visual or auditory memory is not adequately making connections. Struggling readers benefit most from writing in cursive because there is no doubt where the letter begins- it begins on the line.
What is a word-finding difficulty? I think my child forgets words he knows and he gets so frustrated.
What you are describing is when a word is on the “tip of your tongue” and you can describe the word – even name a synonym or the first sound of the word – but can’t find the word you want to say. This is word-finding difficulty. Word-finding is the ability to easily and precisely retrieve the words from your brain when communicating. There is a range of normal difficulty in finding a word when a child is tired or anxious. However, when it happens so often that it impacts communication, treatment is warranted. Therapy can help teach strategies to retrieve words and train your brain to access these words faster and easier.
Resources
asha.org : American Speech Language and Hearing Associatioin is the national professional organization for seech therapists and audiologists.
autismspeaks.org : an autism adovacty organization
pintrest.com : search speech-language boards for more information on various therapy ideas.
dyslexia-ma.org : an amazing resource for learning about reading research, conferences and more links.
autismresourcecentral.org : learn more about events and resources in your community.
carrollschool.org/dyslexia-research/what-dyslexia : What is Dyslexia?
braingym.org: great resource of activities
brainbreaks.blogspot.com
babybumblebee.com
bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures
abcteach.com
childrenofthecode.com
www.npr.org : Article regarding a Poet learning he has dyslexia at age 58. www.dyslexia-ma.org : an amazing resource for learning about reading research, conferences and more links.
entrepreneur.com: turning a disadvantage into an advantage (dyslexia).
asha.org : activities you can do to encourage your child’s language development
childdevelopmentinfo.com/child-development/erickson : the stages of social emotional development