As a parent, you might not understand the lingo of SLPs. During a speech and language evaluation, or while reading your child’s report, your evaluator might be using terms that sound foreign. It is important, if you do not understand what your evaluator is saying, to simply ask. As you continue reading, the most frequently used words will be described.
Receptive Language: Is one of two foundational components of communication. It is what a child understands from the people and objects in his environment. It allows a child to discriminate and understand information (e.g. story comprehension, verbal commands) through spoken language.
*Receptive Language is most often a precursor to expressive language.
Expressive Language: Is the second foundational component of communication. It is how a child communicates and expresses him/herself. Expressive language is not solely the number of words your child produces. Expressive language can include things such as vocalizations, facial expressions, gestures, signs, pictures, communication devices, words, phrases, etc. Therefore, it is important to know expressive language is more than words; it also includes non-verbal means of communication.
Symbol Use (Expressive and Receptive Language): This developmental area relates to the non-verbal and verbal forms, which a child understands and uses to communicate and share experiences with others. Specifically, this refers to grammar, semantics, and syntax)
Grammar: The ability to modify the use of grammatical structures in order to make significant distinctions in the content of messages. ( e.g. “She walked” vs. “ She walkded”)
Syntax: How words are organized into sentences (word order/combinations). For example, subject + verb, attribute + object, agent + action, etc. It allows us to express meaning. “I want a cookie please” vs. “cookie want please I”.
Semantics: Refers to the meaning of a word and/or message. How a child is able to understand and use vocabulary words. (“He ate the apple” vs. “He ate the running”)
Joint Attention: Involves awareness that another person is directing one’s attention to an object, event, place or activity. It requires coordinated attention between people and objects, orienting and attending to a social partner, shifting gaze between people and objects, sharing affect or emotional states with another person. Joint attention also includes being able to draw another person’s attention to objects or events by using eye gaze and pointing for the purpose of sharing experiences. Additionally, it enables a child to consider another person’s perspective and point-of-view. Once, a child is able to successfully ‘joint attend’, they are able to adjust language based on the situational setting/context. Joint attention can increase your child’s self-confidence in actively participating in social activities/conversations.
Pragmatics/Social Language: The social aspects and use of language. How your child effectively interacts and communicates with his/her peers, family members, caregivers, teachers, etc., for a variety of functions. As a child learns how to communicate with others, they increase their effectiveness of getting their wants and needs met. It includes, but is not limited to the rules of conversation (e.g. turn-taking, initiating topics, shifting topics, etc.) emotional expression, figures of speech, sarcasm, etc. This is an area of difficulty for children on the Autism Spectrum and other disabilities.
Nonverbal Communication: Includes things such as gestures, facial expressions, body language, etc. Nonverbal communication makes up roughly 80% of our total communication.
Morphology: the smallest unit of a word. It is a part of a word that carries meaning. For example, past tense –ed changes the meaning of word, to indicate something you have done.
Grammatical Markers: Sounds that mark grammatical categories in English. According to Brown, there are 14 grammatical markers: present progressive –ing (e.g. walking), prepositions (e.g. in, on), regular plural –s (e.g. cats), irregular past tense (e.g. ate), possessive ‘s (e.g. dog’s food), uncontractible copula (e.g. This is hot), articles (e.g. a, an, the), regular past tense –ed (e.g. walked), regular third person (e.g. she works), irregular third person (e.g. she does), uncontractible auxiliary (e.g. Jess is winning), contractible copula (e.g. It’s a bird) and contractible auxiliary (e.g. He’s eating).
Jargon: Nonsense words, consonant-vowel or vowel-consonant combinations. Intonation and prosody imitate that of an adult’s speech. It is sometimes referred to as “gibberish”.
Fluency: How your words and sentences flow together smoothly (e.g. rate of speech). A disruption in fluency is referred to as stuttering. Disruptions can include, but are not limited to repetitions of sounds, words, phrases, etc.
Intelligibility: Clarity of speech sound productions.
Articulation: Refers to correct production of sounds in words. As a child is able to correctly produce sounds, his/her intelligibility will increase. Therefore, a child with an articulation delay/disorder will have difficulty producing one or more sounds (atypical speech) due to motoric movements. Errors can include, but are not limited to substitutions, omissions, deletions, distortions, etc. Speech sound acquisition depends on the age of the child. Even in typically developing children, speech sound acquisition varies. According to Goldman-Fristoe, 2000, Smit, et al 1990, Sanders 1972, Prather, et al 1975 Templin 1957, the following sounds should be mastered by the following ages:
3-/m, b, n, w, d, p, t, h/
3.5-/k, g/, “ing”
4-/f/, “y”
6-/l/
6.5-/v/
7-/s, z, r/, “ch”, “dg”, “sh”, th”
*All sounds should be mastered by the age of 7.
Phonology: A class of speech sound errors (patterns) that are produced in error at the cognitive or linguistic level. A child may be able to produce a speech sound correctly, but not use it correctly. Entire classes of sounds can be classified into place, manner and, voicing. This can include things such as stop consonants /p, b, t, d, k, g/ (manner), labio dental consonants /f, v/ (place), and voicing /b, d, g/. Patterns of speech errors are referred to as phonological processes. Generally speaking, children with phonological disorders are more difficult to understand than a child with an articulation disorder. There are multiple phonological processes, in which they all should be resolved by the age of 7, or the first grade.
Voice: What we hear when we speak. It includes pitch, intonation, loudness, and vocal quality (e.g. hoarseness, “wet”, rough, etc.)
Oral Motor: Oral motor is adequate speech muscle strength, muscle tone, coordination, speed, accuracy in articulation, and range of motion to produce intelligible speech. It includes muscle movements of the face (e.g. lips, jaw, tongue, soft palate, etc.)
Attention and Routines: Attention is required in order for children to actively learn during an activity. When children are engaged in an activity, they are able to learn about the world around them .Routines are predictable events performed repeatedly (i.e. brushing teeth, getting dressed, eating dinner, etc.). When routines are used in a predictable context, they assist in facilitating language. Since children can predict what events will happen, they are able to appropriately finish the routine with correct language use. Routines help children learn how to initiate and terminate conversations, ask and answer questions, and request information or help.
Play: Play is a child’s work. It is their job. It is their way to express themselves and how they learn. Play is important in overall childhood development. Play stimulates the body and the brain. It fosters cognitive, fine and gross motor, communication, social-emotional and self-help skills. Play is so important to optimal child development, that it has been recognized by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a RIGHT OF EVERY CHILD. Children learn that a toy is a representation of a “real” object. In the same manner, words are symbolic representations of ideas, objects and concepts.
Written by Angie
