- A Speech Language Pathologist is a licensed individual who specializes in communication and swallowing disorders and provides speech language therapy to children or adults.
What is the difference between Speech vs. Language?
Speech: How we say our sounds and words. Speech includes articulation, voice, fluency.
- Articulation: How we use our lips, mouth, and tongue to make sounds (i.e. if a child says /tup/ instead of /cup/ they may have articulation challenges with the /k/ sound.
- Voice: how we use our vocal folds to make noise: loud, soft, high pitched or low pitched
- Fluency: our rhythm; people who stutter may have challenges with fluent speech
Language: The words and how we use them to share ideas and get what we want.
- Expressive Language: how we use words to communicate our thoughts, feelings and ideas. Include vocabulary, grammar, sentence length, etc. If a child has challenges with expressive language he or she may not use very many words, have challenges combining words into sentences, have difficulty answering questions (what do you want to eat?), or use incorrect grammar (i.e. her is sliding vs. she is sliding or me do it, vs. I do it).
- Receptive Language: Understanding or comprehending what others say. If a child has challenges with receptive language he/she may show challenges following directions (i.e. get your shoe), identifying objects, pictures, or body parts (i.e. show me your nose), understanding concepts (where’s blue?, put it under)