Common Speech-Language Pathology Terms:

Speech Therapy - The assessment and treatment of a variety of communication-based disorders performed by licensed and certified speech-language pathologists.

Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) - A highly educated professional specialized in the study of communication development and disorders, more commonly referred to as a speech therapist.

Articulation Delay - Difficulty saying age-appropriate speech sounds based on normal speech development patterns. (ex. child says “weaf” instead of “leaf”).

Phonological Disorder - Speech sound errors that affect a group of sounds, that compromise a child’s speech and language system (ex. child consistently omits the last sound in all words).

Phonological awareness deficits - Difficulty understanding sound structure (ex. sounding out new words, separating words into syllables, separating syllables into individual sounds or understanding rhymes.)

Expressive Language Delay - Difficulty using words or other language effectively to communicate a message. 

Receptive Language Delay - Difficulty understanding or comprehending what is said.

Auditory Processing Disorder - Difficulty making sense of three information an individual hears.

Childhood Apraxia of Speech - Trouble saying sounds, or combining sounds, syllables, and words due to difficulty with motor planning for speech movements.

Dysarthria - Unintelligible or imprecise speech related to oral-motor muscle weakness. May present as slurred speech, difficulty controlling volume, rate of speech, intonation and resonance.

Fluency delay - (aka stuttering) Impaired fluency involves disruptions in the natural flow of speech. Dysfluencies (impaired fluency) may present as the repetition of parts of words (ex. C-c-c-cat or ba-ba-baby), prolongations of sounds (ex. mmmmom), or blocking of sounds or words that may be described as getting “stuck.”

Early or pre-literacy deficits - Problems with speaking and listening, knowing letters, pronouncing letter sounds and sounding things out as expected for their age.

Literacy Delays - Language-based reading difficulties, including dyslexia, that impact a student’s ability to read and write effectively. 

Social Communication Deficits - Difficulty using appropriate interpersonal skills to make and maintain healthy friendships and other relationships.

AAC - Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) is the use of any means of communicating that’s not speaking verbally. 

Echolalia -   Chunks of language repeated by children (often on the autism spectrum) after hearing it in their environment.  These might include phrases or sentences spoken by familiar people (parents, teachers) or from their favorite movies/videos.

Early intervention - Services that help support babies and toddlers, ages birth to three-years (and their families) with developmental delays or disabilities.

Neurodiversity Affirming - The idea that individuals have differences in their strengths and abilities and how they interact with the world. These differences are celebrated and built upon in therapy, rather than looked at as deficits that need to be “fixed.” 

Natural Language Acquisition - Developmental sequence of language acquisition developed by speech-language pathologist Marge Blanc (based on research by Dr. Barry  Prizant and Dr. Ann Peters) to describe the language development of gestalt language processors who use delayed echolalia to communicate. 

Gestalt Language Processor - Individuals process language in chunks and focus more on intonation than on words. These individuals may store chunks of language for later use, using the phrasing and intonation used by the original speaker.