• What is Speech/Language Therapy?
    Speech/Language therapy includes the following areas:
     
    ARTICULATION:  The ability to produce specific speech sounds in connected speech and includes oral motor skills (swallowing and movement of the lips, jaw and tongue).  Id the student has difficulty saying speech sounds, this can interfere with the development of reading and spelling skills, as well as make it difficult for others to fully understand what the student is trying to say. 
     
    RECEPTIVE LANGUAGE:  The ability to understand uses, meanings and purposes of :  vocabulary (definitions, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms and multiple meanings), classification, descriptions, associations comparisons, questions forms and grammatical structures as well as inferences and figurative language. 
     
    EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE:  The ability to express and use meanings and purposes of:  vocabulary (definitions, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms and multiple meanings), classification, descriptions, associations, comparisons, question forms and grammatical structures as well as inferences and figurative language.  The student should be able to formulate answers form simple to more complex forms verbally and /or in written form. 
     
    AUDITORY PROCESSING: The ability of what we do with what we hear.  Skills that are included in this area are word finding (speech and accuracy), sound/symbol associations, rhyming, sound blending , segmentation and syllabification and thought organization(cohesion).  Additional skills are discrimination (ability to notice phonemic differences in words), figure-ground (ability to screen out noise distractions or to focus on a primary signal) and attention (ability to maintain purposeful focus over time).
     
    MEMORY:  The ability to recall sequences that are heard in various forms.  Skills that are included in this area are recall of sounds, rhymes, self-identifying information, sequences from daily routines related and unrelated items in a series, facts/ideas presented in various forms (sentences, paragraphs, stories, class lessons) following simple to more complex directions and developing compensatory strategies to use.
     
    PRAGMATICS:  The ability to demonstrate the appropriate use of language to communicate and to interact in social situations and class activities.  Skills include but are not limited to turn taking, eye contact and body language. 
     
    PARAMETERS OF SPEECH:  The ability to use vocal rate, rhythm, volume and tone appropriately.  This area includes voice and fluency.