Articulation Treatment
- In simplest terms, articulation is the way we produce speech sounds. We use all of our articulators to produce meaningful speech sounds, including our lips, teeth, tongue, vocal tract, vocal folds, lower jaw, soft palate, cheeks, and uvula. It is in the way, or patterns, that we produce these sounds in order to produce meaningful words.
- Articulation disorders can be caused by many factors. Some causes may be organic in nature, such as dental problems, hearing deficits, a cleft palate or cleft lip, a motor programming problem in which the directions for oral movement from the brain are not efficiently or correctly carried out by the articulators. Others may be functional in nature, such as general delay in developmental speech sound production.
- Some common articulation errors include:
- Sound substitutions: this occurs when one speech sound in a word is replaced, or substituted, by another speech sound (i.e.: "wed" for "red").
- Sound omissions: this occurs when one speech sound is deleted, or omitted, from a word and not replaced with another speech sound (i.e.: "say" for "stay").
- Sound distortions: this occurs when a speech sound is produced incorrectly, but still able to be understood by listeners as the intended sound; the sound may sound "slushy" (i.e.: "soap" may sound like "shoap").
- Sound additions: this occurs when speech sounds are added to words (i.e.: "animamal" for "animal").
- Treatment of articulation disorders is dependent upon several factors, such as the individuals age, types of errors produced, the severity of the problem, and whether the problem is due to organic or functional causes. Each articulation treatment plan is individualized, and specifically tailored to suit each client's most functional needs.
Augmentative and Alternative Communication
- Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is the use of different communication methods to support, enhance, or supplement the communication of individuals who are not able to independently and verbally communicate their own thoughts, ideas, needs, and desires. Users of AAC vary, and may include individuals with autism, cerebral palsy, or brain injury, and can vary from toddlers to the elderly.
- There are two different types of AAC systems:
- Aided systems: these systems use some type of device, or piece of equipment, to enhance communication. These devices can be high-tech, and require a significant amount of programming, but allow the user to say almost anything he or she desires, or they can be low-tech, and as a simple as a piece of paper with words and/or pictures on it.
- Unaided systems: these systems use some type of gestural, or manual communication methods, such as American Sign Language, fingerspelling, or gestures to enhance communication. AAC systems can range from simple, low-tech methods such as Picture Communication Symbols or single 1-switch methods, all the way up the spectrum to very high-tech devices priced at several thousand dollars.
- The therapists at Florida Speech are all trained in the various types of AAC devices, and can help clients' decide on which type (s) of device(s) are the most appropriate for their communicative needs.
- Speech-Language Pathologists should evaluate an individual's need for the use of an AAC system, and can recommend an appropriate system and intervention plan.
Autism-Speech and Language Treatment
- Autism is an abnormality in interpersonal relationships which is exhibited in early childhood, and characterized by onset prior to 30 months of age, lack of responsiveness to others, deficits in language and speech development, stereotypic body movements (i.e.: endless rocking, finger waving) and insistence on routines.
- While sources vary on the exact prevalence of autism, it is estimated to occur in one of every 150 births and is approximately four times more prevalent in boys than in girls.
- Autism does not discriminate, and affects individuals of all races, ethnic backgrounds, and socioeconomic classes.
- Autism is considered a "spectrum" disorder. This means that there are no two cases alike. Every individual with autism is unique to him or herself, and needs to be treated accordingly.
- Many individuals with autism exhibit heightened sensitivity to noisy and/or busy environments. This should be kept in mind when working with individuals with autism.
- It has been found that combining objects, photos, picture communication symbols, gestures, and aided AAC systems to traditional speech and language treatment approaches helps an individual with autism communicate.
- The therapists at Florida Speech are highly trained in treating communicative disorders of clients with autism. We use various behavioral and sensory integration techniques in order to allow the clients to be able to learn most effectively. We employ a variety of Alternative and/or Augmentative Communication (AAC) strategies to allow clients with aurism to adequately and appropriately interact with communicative partners, and express their needs, wants, and thoughts with greater ease.
Emergent Literacy
- Emergent literacy is a child's collection of knowledge about sounds, letters, words, and books during the preschool years. Parents can help to increase their child's emergent literacy knowledge by exposing them to literary artifacts and literary events. A child who has been exposed to literacy artifacts and has experienced literary events is better prepared to learn how to read.
- Literary artifacts: possessions that contain reading materials such as characters from nursery rhymes, pictures of writing, alphabet blocks, books, magazines, etc.
- Literary events: occurrences when the child participates and observes literature.
- Joint book reading is a great way to increase your child's emergent literacy! Joint book reading is when a parent reads to their child, and both are focusing on the pictures and words. Parents should make joint book reading a fun and enjoyable time with their child! Some strategies to use during joint book reading include:
- Labeling pictures, actions, and events
- Using a rhythmic, singsong cadence to get and maintain their attention
- Relating the information to your child's life
- Asking simple questions about the book or story
- Encouraging the child to ask questions about the book or story
- During the period of emergent literacy it is important to develop a child's ability to better understand letters and print. Parents can use some of the following strategies:
- Exposing your child to written materials
- Pointing to each word as you read to your child (this will develop your child's ability to recognize and associate the 'squiggle lines' -letters- on the page with meaning)
- Pointing to each letter as you make the corresponding sound to develop your child's knowledge that each letter represents a sound, or multiple sounds
- Playing rhyming games
- Emergent literacy is a foundation skill, or a skill that must be well developed in order to provide success in academics later in the child's life. Children that do not develop their emergent literacy skills during this time prior to entering kindergarten will have difficulties with letter and sound recognition, reading comprehension, and the ability to accurately discuss books and stories.
- Remember! Until the third grade children are learning to read. From third grade through the rest of their academic lives, children read to learn. This is why emergent literacy is extremely important to children's overall academic success! Reading is used in every academic area (math problems, explaining science project directions, book reports, editorials, etc.)
- Speech-language pathologists can help lay a solid emergent literacy foundation for preschoolers by reading, working with letters, sounds, sound productions, and receptive and expressive language activities. They can also help re-build, or re-solidify school-age children's reading skills by focusing on the same emergent literacy skills, but incorporating academics into the therapy. If you are concerned about your child's emergent literacy skills, please contact Florida Speech-Language Pathology, Inc. to set up an evaluation.
Language Treatment
- In basic terms, language is the way sounds are sequenced to form words, how words are sequenced to form sentences, and the meanings that are applied to those words by the users of any specific language. Language is separated into two types, receptive and expressive.
- Receptive language is the comprehension, or understanding of, spoken or written language.
- Expressive language is the ability of an individual to adequately express his or her thoughts, ideas, wants, and feelings through speaking or writing.
- Language is further divided into three components: content, form, and use.
- Language content consists of what individuals talk about, and what they understand of what other people say. Language content is also referred to as semantics, or the meaning of words and how they are used. An individual with difficulties in vocabulary comprehension and/or use has a difficulty with language content, or semantics.
- Some common semantic relations, or language structures and sequences, used by children include:
- action-location (i.e.: "come here")
- action-object (i.e.: "eat pretzels")
- agent-action (i.e.: "sissy open)
- agent-object (i.e.: "mommy home")
- demonstrative-entity (i.e.: "that train")
- entity-location (i.e.: "doggie there")
- possessor-possession (i.e.: "my ball")
- Language form, or the structure of sounds combined to form words, and the way the words are sequenced to form sentences, consists of three areas:
- Phonology: the study of the sound system of language, including pauses and stresses.
- Morphology: the study of the minimal units of grammatical structure that have meaning (i.e.: "teach" vs. "teacher"). A morpheme is a word or part of a word that has meaning. There are different types of morphemes.
- Some morpheme types include:
- bound morphemes: these types of morphemes cannot stand alone in a sentence. These indicate plurality or singularity in nouns (i.e.: "cats"), verb tensing (i.e.: "walked"), degree in adjectives (i.e.: "softness"), possession (i.e.: "girl's"), and negation (i.e.: "unhappy").
- free morphemes: these morphemes can stand alone in sentences and still designate meaning (i.e.: "cat, walk, soft).
- grammatical morphemes: these morphemes place inflection on nouns, verbs, and adjectives which signals different meanings (i.e.: the morpheme -s when added to a noun 'dog' shows plurality, but when added to the noun 'mommy' shows possession).
- zero morpheme: these morphemes are variations of the plural bound morpheme which indicates the absence of a change from singular to plural form (i.e.: "fish, sheep").
- Syntax: refers to the way words are combined together to form meaningful phrases and sentences (i.e.: "I like to fish" vs. "Fish I like to").
- Individuals with difficulty constructing grammatically correct and meaningful phrases and sentences have difficulty with comprehending and/or using proper language form.
- Language use consists of how individuals use language in different contexts. This is also referred to as pragmatics, the study of the social use of language. Pragmatics includes aspects such as eye contact with conversational partners, physical proximity to communicative partners, turn taking and not interrupting, body language, and using polite or proper greetings. Individuals who are unable to abide by socially acceptable pragmatic/conversational rules, have difficulty with language use.
- In order to correctly understand and use language skills, children need to have certain "building blocks" of language. These "building blocks" are referred to as basic concepts and include colors, numbers, location words, and descriptive words. Without proper comprehension of these basic concepts, children will most likely exhibit difficulties with following directions, engaging in classroom routines, and giving descriptions. Basic language concepts are absolutely essential for academic tasks such as reading, writing, speaking, and arithmetic.
- Treatment approaches and techniques for language disorders vary depending upon what area(s) of language are found to be disordered or delayed. Therapists also should consider the age, gender, and background of the language disordered or delayed client, and what aspects of treatment would prove to be most beneficial, or functional, for the individual clients. For example, a therapy approach for a language delayed adult would possibly focus on functional use of language in a work environment, whereas a therapy approach for a language delayed adolescent would possibly focus on figurative language and academic vocabulary comprehension and use.
