Speech Therapist

A Speech Therapist is a [[]] that ...

• AKA: Speech-Language Pathology.
• See: Feeding Disorder, Clinician, The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Communication Disorders, Cognition, Voice Disorders, Dysphagia, Speech Communication, Phonation, Resonance, Fluency, Intonation (Linguistics).

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References

2017

• (Wikipedia, 2017) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech-language_pathology Retrieved:2017-4-5.
  • Speech-language pathology is a field of expertise practiced by a clinician known as a speech-language pathologist (SLP), also called speech and language therapist, or speech therapist, who specializes in the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of communication disorders, cognition, voice disorders, and swallowing disorders.

    A common misconception is that speech-language pathology is restricted to correcting pronunciation difficulties, such as helping English speaking individuals enunciate their "s" and "r" sounds, and helping people who stutter to speak more fluently. In fact, speech-language pathology is concerned with a broad scope of speech, language, swallowing, and voice issues involving communication, some of which are: * Word-finding issues, either as a result of a specific language problem such as a language delay or a more general issue such as dementia. * Social communication difficulties involving how people communicate ideas with others (pragmatics). * Structural language impairments, including difficulties creating sentences that are grammatical (syntax) and meaningful (semantics). * Literacy impairments (reading and writing) related to the letter-to-sound relationship (phonics), the word-to-meaning relationship (semantics), and understanding the ideas presented in a text (reading comprehension).

    • Voice difficulties, such as a raspy voice, a voice that is too soft, or other voice difficulties that negatively impact a person's social or professional performance.
    • Cognitive impairments (e.g., attention, memory, executive function) to the extent that they interfere with communication.
  • The components of speech production include:
    • phonation (producing sound);
    • resonance;
    • fluency;
    • Intonation,
    • Pitch variance;
    • Voice (including aeromechanical components of respiration)
  • The components of language include:
    • phonology (manipulating sound according to the rules of a language);
    • Morphology (understanding and using minimal units of meaning);
    • syntax (constructing sentences according to languages' grammar rules);
    • semantics (interpreting signs or symbols of communication to construct meaning);
    • pragmatics (social aspects of communication).
  • Primary pediatric speech and language disorders include receptive and expressive language disorders, speech sound disorders, childhood apraxia of speech, stuttering, and language-based learning disabilities. Swallowing disorders include difficulties in any system of the swallowing process (i.e. oral, pharyngeal, esophageal), as well as functional dysphagia and feeding disorders. Swallowing disorders can occur at any age and can stem from multiple causes.

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