Common Speech and Language Disorders

Articulation:

The production of speech sounds. Children may present with sound substitutions (production of a “t” for a “k” or speech sound deletions).

Childhood apraxia of speech:

Difficulty planning and coordinating the movements needed to make speech sounds and connected speech. A child with apraxia of speech may produce words with different substitutions on each attempt or have a limited number of sounds that they produce.

Fluency:

Stuttering. Children present with a repetition of sounds, words or short phrases or pausing (blocking) of speech production.

Voice:

Difficulties with the way the voice sounds. A child would have difficulty with vocal quality (ex. hoarseness), pitch and loudness.

Receptive language:

Difficulty understanding language. Children with receptive language difficulties would present with trouble following/comprehending verbal instructions.

Expressive language:

Difficulty in the use of language. A child may not use the correct words (ex: tenses, pronouns) or sentence structure (grammatically correct sentences).

Pragmatic language:

Social communication. Pragmatic language difficulties can present as a difficulty in staying on topic or appropriately responding to others in varying communication situations as well as many other verbal and non verbal skills.