1. What is a Speech-Language Pathologist?

Speech-Language Pathologists diagnose and provide treatment for children and adults with a variety of speech-language, cognitive, voice, and feeding-swallowing problems.

2. What kinds of speech and language disorders affect children?

Speech and language disorders can affect the way children talk, understand, analyze or process information. Speech disorders include the clarity, voice quality, and fluency of a child's spoken words. Language disorders include a child's ability to hold meaningful conversations, understand others, problem solve, read and comprehend, and express thoughts through spoken or written words.

3. At what age should I seek out help for my child?

Our Speech-Language Pathologists work with children from infancy to adolescence. If you are concerned about your child's communication skills, please call to find out if your child should be seen for a communication evaluation and/or consultation. The early months of your baby's life are of great importance for the development of good social skills, emotional growth, and intelligence!

4. What are the warning signs of a communication disorder in my young child?

Here are some of the common warning signs by age range.

Birth to Six Months

• • Developmental or medical problems

  • Lack of response to sound

  • Lack of interest in speech

  • Limited eye contact

  • Feeding problems

  • Very limited vocalizations

  • Difficulties with attachment

  • Lack of interest in socializing

Six to Twelve Months

• • Limited sound production, lack of variety or amount.

  • Groping movements when attempting to make or imitate sounds.

  • Oral-motor problems such as excessive drooling, trouble with solid foods, intolerance to touch in and around the mouth.

  • Lack of interest in sound-making toys, radios, T.V., music, voices.

  • Developmental or medical problems

  • Lack of response to sound

  • Lack of interest in speech

  • Limited eye contact

  • Feeding problems

  • Very limited vocalizations

  • Difficulties with attachment

  • Lack of interest in socializing

Twelve to Eighteen Months

• • Easily distractible.

  • Does not understand any words or directions.

  • Limited sound production, lack of variety or amount.

  • Groping movements when attempting to make or imitate sounds.

  • Oral-motor problems such as excessive drooling, trouble with solid foods, intolerance to touch in and around the mouth.

  • Lack of interest in sound-making toys, radios, T.V., music, voices.

Eighteen to Twenty-four Months

• • Not using words some of the time to communicate.

  • No interest in imitation.

  • Won't play games.

  • No jargon.

  • Grunting and pointing as primary means of communication.

  • Easily distractible.

  • Does not understand any words or directions.

  • Limited sound production, lack of variety or amount.

  • Groping movements when attempting to make or imitate sounds.

  • Oral-motor problems such as excessive drooling, trouble with solid foods, intolerance to touch in and around the mouth.

  • Lack of interest in sound-making toys, radios, T.V., music, voices.

Two to Three Year Olds

• • Not combining words

  • Must be told and retold to carry out simple directions (not just non-compliance)

  • Using only nouns

  • Poor eye contact

  • No rapid increase in number of words understood and used

  • Does not tolerate sitting for listening activity/looking at books, etc.

Three to Four Year Olds

• • Not speaking in full sentences (not necessarily correct grammar, but nice variety of word types

  • Not using "I" to refer to self

  • Cannot relate experiences, even in simple telegraph sentences

5. What is a receptive language disorder?

Receptive language includes the skills involved in understanding language. Receptive language disorders are difficulties in the ability to attend to, process, comprehend, and/or retain spoken language.

6. Is my child showing signs of a receptive language disorder?

 Some early signs and symptoms of a receptive language disorder include:

• • Difficulty following directions

  • Repeating back words or phrases either immediately or at a later time (echolalia).

  • Difficulty with answering questions appropriately

  • Use of jargon while talking

  • Difficulty attending to spoken language

  • High activity level

  • Inappropriate and/or off topic responses to questions

7. What is an expressive language disorder?

Expressive language includes the skills involved in communicating one's thoughts and feelings to others. An expressive language disorder concerns difficultly with verbal expression.

8. Is my child showing signs of an expressive language disorder?

Some signs and symptoms of an expressive language disorder include:

• Omitting word endings, difficulty acquiring grammatical forms such as plurals, past tense verbs, complex verb forms.

• Limited vocabulary

• Repetition of words or syllables

• Difficulty understanding words that describe position, time, quality or quantity

• Word retrieval difficulties

• Substituting one word for another or misnaming items

• Excessive reliance on non-verbal means of communicatin

9. Is my child showing signs of Autism?

Signs of autism may begin to be detected as early as 12 months of age. Symptoms of autism can occur in isolation or in combination with other conditions. Some early indicators of autism spectrum disorder may include:

• Delayed development of the ability to draw the attention of parents and others to objects and events.

• Little or no use of pointing to encourage another person to look at what (s)he sees (i.e., "joint attention").

• Little or no attempt to gain attention by bringing or showing toys/objects to others.

• Little or no eye contact.

• Participates in repetitive patterns of activities.

• Aloofness and indifference to other people.

• Lack of understanding that language is a tool for conveying information.

• Tendency to select for enjoyment trivial aspects of things in the environment (e.g., attending to a wheel on a toy car and not the whole car for imaginative play).

• Odd responses to sensory stimuli, such as hypersensitivity to sound, fascination with visual stimuli, dislike of gentle touch but enjoyment of firm pressure.

• Uses senses of taste and smell rather than hearing and vision.

• Poor coordination including clumsiness, odd gait and posture.

• Over or under activity.

• Abnormalities of mood, such as excitement, misery.

• Abnormalities of eating, drinking, and sleeping.

10. What is a Social Pragmatic Language Disorder?

Children with social pragmatic difficulties demonstrate deficits in social cognitive functioning. Diagnostic terms include: Asperger Syndrome, Hyperlexia, High Functioning Autism, Semantic-Pragmatic Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disorders-Not Otherwise Specified and Non-Verbal Learning Disabilities.

11. Is my child showing signs of a social-pragmatic language disorder?

Persons with social-pragmatic deficits have significant difficulties in their ability to effectively communicate and problem solve. Some signs and symptoms may include:

• Difficulties with personal problem solving

• Literal/concrete understanding of language.

• Difficulty engaging in conversational exchange.

• Difficulty with active listening, including participating through observation of the context and making logical connections.

• Aggressive language.

• Decreased interest in other children.

• Difficulty with abstract and inferential language.

• Lack of eye contact.

• Difficulty interpreting nonverbal language.

• Difficulty with adequately expressing feelings.

12. Is my child's "stuttering" normal?

Non-fluent speech is typical between the ages of two and six years. It is typical for non-fluent speech to last up to six months, improve, then return. A speech-language evaluation may be in order if your child exhibits any other speech and language difficulties or was a late talker. Any child who is demonstrating any "struggle behaviors" (e.g., facial/bodily tension, breathing disruptions, blocks, grimacing) should be referred to a speech-language pathologist immediately.

13. What can I do to help my child's dysfluencies at home?

• Slow down your own speech to a slow normal rate; slow down your own actions and adopt a more relaxed, non-hurried atmosphere for your child. Build in more time for getting ready for activities and changing activities.

• Make sure your child has adequate rest and is healthy. Attend to allergies.

• Chart your child's "stuttering" to see if a pattern can be determined. Videotape or audiotape your child once a month to obtain an objective assessment of dysfluencies.

• Encourage conversation on a "good day". On a day when your child shows many dysfluencies, ask more "yes/no" questions which require shorter answers and direct your child to "quiet" activities if your child prefers not to talk.

• Listen patiently to your child and encourage other family members to refrain from interrupting.

• Do what works to encourage fluent speech. Don't be afraid of the stuttering. Your attitude will be conveyed to your child. Fluent speech is like any other skill to be learned and can be encouraged. Contrary to popular belief, many things parents say naturally (e.g., slow down, start again) help their children. Sensitivity and patience is the best approach.

• Come in for a consultation if you are very worried or upset.

14. What is an articulation disorder?

Articulation is the production of speech sounds. An articulation disorder is when a child does not make speech sounds correctly due to incorrect placement or movement of the lips, tongue, velum, and/or pharynx. It is important to recognize that there are differences in the age at which children produce specific speech sounds in all words and phrases. Mastering specific speech sounds may take place over several years.

15. What is a phonological disorder?

Phonology refers to the speech sound system of language. A phonological disorder is when a child is not using speech sound patterns appropriately. A child whose sound structures are different from the speech typical for their stage of development, or who produce unusual simplifications of sound combinations may be demonstrating a phonological disorder.

16. What are some signs of an articulation/phonological disorder in my child?

Signs of a possible articulation/phonological disorder in a preschool child may include:

• Drooling, feeding concerns

• Omits medial and final sounds

• Is difficult to understand

• Stops many consonants, little use of continuing consonants such as /w/s/n/f/.

• Limited variety of speech sounds

• Omits initial consonants

• Asymmetrical tongue or jaw movement

• Tongue between teeth for many sounds

Signs of an articulation/phonological disorder in a school age child may include:

• Omissions/substitutions of speech sounds

• Difficulty with consonant blends

• Frontal and/or lateral lisps

• Difficulty producing consonants /s/r/l/th/.

17. How can I help improve my child's pronunciation at home?

• Speak clearly and at a slow conversational rate.

• Know which sounds are expected to be pronounced correctly at your child's age - encourage only the speech sounds which are appropriate.

• Model correct pronunciation at natural times during the day. Do not correct your child. For example, if your child says, " I wove you", you could say, "Yes, I love you too". You may want to emphasize the target sound slightly.

• Play sounds games if your child is interested. This will increase his overall awareness and discrimination of sounds. You might play with magnetic letters, read rhyming books such as Dr. Seuss, say nursery rhymes or sing songs slowly. Many songs can encourage awareness of sounds through their words (Old MacDonald, Bingo, etc.)

• Tell your child when you don't understand what she has said. Let her know that you will listen and try to understand. Have her gesture or show you what she is talking about if needed. Explain to her that sometimes you may not understand what she says and that you know this must be frustrating for her. Let her know you understand how she feels.

18. What happens during Speech-Language Evaluations?

Prior to the evaluation 

• Parents complete a questionnaire regarding their concerns and the child's medical, developmental, and educational history.

• We will request medical information from the child's pediatrician, and may also request information from other medical or educational professionals who have evaluated the child.

During the evaluation

• Your child's medical, developmental, and educational history is carefully reviewed. Parents are interviewed regarding their concerns and the child's history. This information helps the Speech-Language Pathologist identify areas to evaluate more closely.

• A variety of methods, including formal and informal tests, observation, parent/caregiver interview, and play-based activities will be used to evaluate your child's speech, language, cognition, and voice. Selection of testing methods is based on your child's individual needs. Parents are encouraged to observe during the evaluation.

Following the evaluation

• Initial results of the evaluation and recommendations are reviewed with you (and your child if age appropriate). A written report detailing evaluation results will be mailed to your home and to your child's physician (if requested).

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