A Speech Path logo

Services

Therapies & programs provided by A Speech Path include, but are not limited to:
  • Speech Disorders: Articulation, Phonological Processing & Motor-Speech (Childhood Apraxia of Speech, Dysarthria)
  • Receptive & Expressive Language
  • Social and Play Development
  • Literacy

Please Note: If A Speech Path is not the most suitable placement for your child, I will gladly discuss other options with your pediatrician and/or provide a recommendation for other providers.
For resources and information on typical communication development and milestones, please visit:

Speech Sound Disorders: Articulation & Phonological Processes

Articulation refers to the motor movement required to produce speech sounds—a highly refined and precise coordination of movements made by the tongue, jaw, and lips. Speech sound acquisition is developmental in nature, and all children have trouble making particular sounds at some point in their development. However, some children have lingering errors and benefit from intervention. An articulation disorder occurs when a child omits, substitutes, or distorts a sound within his speech beyond the age of expected development.

Phonological processing refers to the predictable patterns and processing of speech sounds. Children often use a phonological process that creates a predictable substitution pattern that simplifies the movement required by the tongue and jaw—for example, using a /t/ or /d/ for a /k/ or /g/ sound (‘tar’ for ‘car’ or ‘doe’ for ‘go’).  Because the child’s speech errors follow a pattern, familiar listeners often “break the code” and understand more than unfamiliar listeners do. Many children demonstrate phonological errors in their developmental progression; however, if errors continue beyond the age of expected resolution, intervention may be warranted.

Pull-Quotes_movement

Signs & Symptoms:

  • Others have difficulty understanding your child
  • Child expresses frustration at not being understood by others
  • Child makes errors, substitutions or distorts sounds
  • Child demonstrates decreased precision of speech
  • Child limits communication for fear of not being understood
Additional Resources & Information:

Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) refers to a motor speech impairment that occurs at the neurological level. Children with CAS demonstrate difficulty in the neurologic planning, programming, and coordination of the fine motor movements required for precise articulation of speech. These children often know what they want to say, but their brains struggle to plan the movements required to say it. CAS differs from a typical articulation delay in that the impact on speech clarity is much more profound and progress requires more effort and is more time consuming. Only about 3% of children with an articulation disorder have CAS. CAS may be suspected at the time of assessment, but due to the complexity of the disorder a diagnosis may not be given at the initial evaluation.

Signs & Symptoms:

  • Better understanding than expression of language
  • Inconsistent productions of the same word
  • Increased difficulty with longer, multi-syllabic words
  • Difficulty imitating speech (although imitation is often more clear than spontaneous speech)
  • Choppy speech quality
Additional Resources & Information:

Language

Receptive language—the understanding of language—is the foundation for our ability to follow directions, learn, and understand what a communication partner is expressing in order to respond appropriately.  However, as there are many co-occurring difficulties (such as attention and memory) that impact receptive language, a thorough evaluation is important in determining whether or not difficulties are language-based.

Pull-Quote_language

Expressive language refers to the ability to communicate wants, needs, and thoughts to engage with others, and includes the specific components of language, such as sentence order and grammar use, as well as overall communicative effectiveness (for example, the variety and use of vocabulary).

Children can present with a delay in one or both of these areas. In older children, difficulties can greatly impact academic success as it relates to reading, writing, and engaging with peers.

Signs & Symptoms

Signs and symptoms of a language-based disorder are vast in number and greatly depend on the child’s age. Parents are acutely aware of their children’s early development and are constantly (even if subconsciously) mentally comparing their child’s development to other same-age peers. For this reason, parents usually develop concerns before anyone else. Academic language is rarely used in conversational and daily interactions, therefore, academic language challenges can often be less obvious to families until there are school-based concerns. You know your child best—if you are concerned that there may be a problem, it is always best to speak with your pediatrician and schedule an evaluation with a speech-language pathologist.

Additional Resources & Information:
Pull-Quotes_name-of-bird-2

Literacy:

If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur. ~Doug Larson

Literacy refers to the ability to read and use written language. Verbal language is the foundation of literacy, so if there are underlying language delays a child’s literacy development may also be impacted.

Reading incorporates a number of complex processes: sound awareness, decoding (sounding out a word), sight word knowledge (memorized words), comprehension, and reading fluency (how efficient a child’s reading is in terms of accuracy and speed). Written language requires all the components of reading to promote spelling and relies heavily upon verbal language skills as they relate to putting ideas together, sequencing them appropriately, and elaboration. When children struggle with any of these areas, their academic confidence is often greatly diminished.

Additional Resources & Information: