Speech

I am a Pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist three days a week. Many people do not know what speech therapy is or what a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) actually does until their child or parent needs services. This was my first passion and I am still very in love with it. I love helping children and adults with special needs. Although speech pathology is not well known or understood by the general population, it breaks my heart when I see parents for the first time saying "We didn't know we needed to be doing this/that", "Is it our fault our child needs therapy?", etc. While this blog is primarily about life, motherhood, and littles; I will occasionally post speech and language tips that might be helpful for anyone reading.

We mainly provide services but are not limited to the following areas:

Articulation: The formation of clear and and distinct sounds in speech. When our speech sounds develop appropriately, we are considered intelligible or easily understood by others. Most sounds are mastered by age 7 but there are some exceptions.

Language: The are two areas of language. Receptive language which is the ability to understand information and expressive language which is how we communicate.

Fluency: Most commonly known as stuttering. The ability to express oneself easily and articulately.

Pragmatics/Social Communication: The social language skills we use in our daily interactions with others. They include what we say, how we say it, our body language and whether it is appropriate to the given situation. Pragmatic skills are vital for communicating our personal thoughts, ideas and feelings.

Cognition: People who have experienced an acquired brain injury or stroke frequently encounter changes in their thinking skills, ability to use and understand language, and ability to speak.

Voice: There are medical conditions involving abnormal pitch, loudness or quality of the sound produced by the larynx and thereby affecting speech production.

Hearing/Auditory Processing: Listening skills impacted by hearing loss/deafness. Auditory processing is a natural process of taking in sound through the ear and having it travel to the language area of the brain to be interpreted. You can have an auditory processing delay with normal hearing skills.

Feeding/Oral-Motor/Swallowing: Inability or refusal to eat certain foods/textures. Swallowing disorders are very common with infants and elderly.