Updated 5/7/19

The "S" in SLP stands for "speech" and is probably the most widely known part of a speech-language pathologist's job. But, did you know that difficulties with "speech" include a variety of different diagnoses? "Speech" can mean: articulation, phonological processes, apraxia, dysarthria, fluency, voice... 

Speech can be defined as the "motor act of respiration, phonation, articulation, and resonation" (Terminology of Communication Disorders: Speech-Language-Hearing, 4th Edition). Put more simply, it is the sound that comes out of our mouth to form words. It is the physical process of talking. Speech requires control and coordination of precise movements of all the organs/muscles/"body parts" of the speech mechanism (it takes about 100 muscles to speak!), involving both motor planning and execution. For most of us, speech is our primary method of communication. 

Speech development begins at birth with a baby’s first cry.  While there is much individual variation in speech-sound development and children master speech sounds at different rates, this is a general guideline to speech development: 

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When something interferes with the rhythm, flow or production of speech, we call it a speech delay or disorder.  How the speech impairment presents determines which diagnosis is given.

Articulation:  A diagnosis of articulation delay/disorder refers to the incorrect production of specific speech sounds after the age at which they are expected to be mastered. The problem sounds might be replaced by other sounds (e.g. wabbit for rabbit), deleted (e.g. cu for cup), distorted or otherwise changed from the standard way of saying them. 

Phonological Processes:  A diagnosis of phonological process disorder refers to patterns of sound errors. For example, replacing all sounds made with the nose (/m, n, ng/) with sounds made in the mouth cavity (e.g. doe for no or hobe for home).

Apraxia:  A diagnosis of apraxia (also called apraxia of speech, Childhood Apraxia of Speech, verbal apraxia) is a motor speech disorder that refers to significant difficulty planning and producing the specific and sophisticated sequence of movements needed to produce intelligible speech (speech that is understandable).

Dysarthria:  A diagnosis of dysarthria is a motor speech disorder in which the muscles involved in speech production are weak, slow moving or paralyzed resulting in speech differences.

Stuttering:  A stuttering diagnosis (also referred to as dysfluency) refers to disturbances in the normal fluency/flow and time patterning of speech and often includes repetitions of sounds (b-b-b-b-boy), syllables (ta-ta-ta-table), or words (I-I-I-I), as well as prolongations of sounds (sssssssssssssun) within words. Stuttering can also be characterized by frequent interjections (little filler words, such as um, uh, like) or complete blocks where the mouth looks like it is trying to say something but nothing comes out for a long period of time.

Voice:  A voice disorder refers to issues of pitch, intensity, or quality of how the voice sounds (e.g., hoarse, breathy, low volume, etc.) in the absence of a temporary condition, like a cold or allergies.

Other "speech" related issues include tongue thrust, cleft-lip, accent reduction; the list goes on. Speech-language pathologists can help treat these speech delays/disorders and more! 

You might also like these related posts:

Receptive, Expressive; Oral, Written - The L in SLP

Putting it all together:  Communication