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10 Commonly-used speech therapy terms

10 Commonly-Used Speech Therapy Terms

Learn some general terms used by speech language pathologists that will help you during your therapy visit. 1. Augmentative and alternative 4. Expressive language is a broad 7. Feeding and swallowing therapy communication term that describes how a person focuses on the ability to bring food to includes all forms communicates their wants and the mouth, chew and swallow safely and of communication and expression. needs. As both verbal and nonverbal communication, expressive language 8. efficiently. Disorders of fluency are speech

AAC therapy may skills include: facial expressions, disorders that impact speech fluidity. supplement verbal gestures, intentionality, vocabulary Fluency disorders, such as stuttering, communication or be the primary form of communication. 5. and semantics. Oral motor skills are used in therapy are characterized by sound or word repetitions, pauses, or drawn out

It may incorporate the use of pictures, sessions to build oral motor strength syllables, words and phrases. In more gestures, voice-output devices or for speech sound development and severe cases, groping or nonverbal computers to help individuals express feeding skills. Therapy in this area symptoms (e.g. ticks, silent blocks) also their thoughts effectively. typically encompasses oral awareness, are present. 2. Childhood apraxia of speech is a motor oral stretches and oral exercises 9. Dysarthria is another motor speech speech disorder that impacts a child’s to improve strength and speed of disorder that results from neuro-motor speech clarity. Children with apraxia of speech have difficulty planning and 6. movements needed for speech. Articulation or speech production impairment to the muscles of speech production. producing refined movements of the jaw, is how clearly a speech sound is 10. Voice disorders are considered to lips and tongue needed for clear speech. produced. Children or adults may be an abnormality of one or more of 3. Receptive language skills involve have errors in speech for one specific the three characteristics of voice: pitch attention, listening and processing the sound, or a group of sound classes. For (intonation), intensity (loudness), and message to gain information. example, a child may say “tat” for “cat.” quality (resonance).