Glossary
- Aberrant oral structure
- An oral structure that is not standard or normal
- Articulation disorder
- Atypical production of speech sounds
- Articulators
- The oral structures that move to modify the airstream during speech; these include lips, jaw, teeth, tongue, and velum
- Babbling
- Increasingly complex and speech-like utterances during the first two years of life
- Central auditory processing disorders (CAPD)
- Deficits in the information processing of audible signals not attributed to impaired peripheral hearing sensitivity or intellectual impairment
- Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
- Difficulty planning and sequencing the movements required for speech, and difficulty with prosody
- Communication disorder
- Impairment in the ability to receive, send, process, and comprehend concepts or verbal, nonverbal and graphic symbol systems. A communication disorder may be evident in the processes of hearing, language, and/or speech.
- Communication disorders
- Impairment in the ability to receive, send, process, and comprehend concepts or verbal, nonverbal and graphic symbol systems. A communication disorder may be evident in the processes of hearing, language, and/or speech.
- Fluency disorder (dysfluency)
- Interruption in the flow of speaking characterized by atypical rate, rhythm, and repetitions in sounds, syllables, words, and phrases. This may be accompanied by excessive tension and secondary mannerisms.
- Hypernasality
- A resonance disorder when air inappropriately enters the nasal cavity during speech; perceptible on vowels
- Hyponasal
- A resonance disorder when air is blocked from the nasal cavity during speech due to a blockage; mostly perceptible on nasal sounds (m, n, ng)
- Intelligibility
- Refers to the proportion of a speaker's output that a listener can readily understand
- Language disorders
- Impaired comprehension and/or use of spoken, written and/or other symbol systems
- Morpheme
- The smallest linguistic unit of meaning (e.g. “go” is one morpheme; “going” is 2 morphemes)
- Morphology
- The system that governs the structure of words and the construction of word forms
- Occupational therapy
- Helps people across the lifespan participate in the things they want and need to do through the therapeutic use of everyday activities (occupations). Common occupational therapy interventions include helping children with disabilities to participate fully in school and social situations, helping people recovering from injury to regain skills, and providing supports for older adults experiencing physical and cognitive changes.
- Orofacial myofunctional disorder
- Exaggerated anterior lingual movement during speech and/or swallow
- Otolaryngologists
- Physicians trained in the medical and surgical management and treatment of patients with diseases and disorders of the ear, nose, throat, and related structures of the head and neck. They are commonly referred to as ENT physicians.
- Phoneme
- The smallest unit of sound (e.g. “b” sound)
- Phonological disorder
- A phonological disorder is a speech sound disorder that affects the phonological (phonemic) level
- Phonology
- The sound system of a language and the rules that govern the sound
- Physical therapy
- A health care profession primarily concerned with the remediation of impairments and disabilities and the promotion of mobility, functional ability, quality of life and movement potential through examination, evaluation, diagnosis and physical intervention carried out by physical therapists.
- Pragmatics
- The system that combines the language components in functional and socially appropriate communication
- Semantics
- The system that governs the meanings of words and sentences
- Speech disorders
- Impairment of the articulation of speech sounds, fluency and/or voice
- Swallowing disorder
- (Dysphagia) Abnormality or difficulty in the oral, pharyngeal, and or esophageal stages of swallowing
- Swallowing disorders
- (Dysphagia) Abnormality or difficulty in the oral, pharyngeal, and or esophageal stages of swallowing
- Syntax
- The system governing the order and combination of words to form sentences, and the relationships among the elements within a sentence
- Voice disorder (dysphonia)
- Abnormal production of vocal quality, pitch, loudness, resonance, and/or duration, which is inappropriate for an individual's age and/or sex