Speech / Overview

Speech-Language Pathology

What is speech? What is Language?

Language is made up of socially shared rules that include the following:

-The meaning of words:e.g., "star" can refer to a bright object in the night sky or a celebrity
-How to make new words (e.g., friend, friendly, unfriendly)
-How to put words together (e.g., "Peg walked to the new store" rather than "Peg walk store new")
-What word combinations are best in what situations ("Would you mind moving your foot?" could quickly change to "Get off my foot, please!" if the first request did not produce results)

Speech is the verbal means of communicating. Speech consists of the following:

Articulation: How speech sounds are made (e.g., children must learn how to produce the "r" sound in order to say "rabbit" instead of "wabbit").
Voice: Use of the vocal folds and breathing to produce sound (e.g., the voice can be abused from overuse or misuse and can lead to hoarseness or loss of voice).
Fluency: The rhythm of speech (e.g., hesitations or stuttering can affect fluency).

Every student is unique, as is their learning process. Development of more than one language depends on the type and amount of input you receive in all languages. It is important to understand that the process of learning a second language is NOT a language disorder. (www.asha.org)

For further resources please visit The American Speech-Language Hearing Association's website: www.asha.org

Last Modified on September 14, 2011