Speech and Language with Mrs. Lynch

Welcome to Speech and Language!

A student's need for speech and language therapy varies with each individual.  An individual may require one or even several different areas targeted in therapy sessions.  The severity of an individual's needs range from mild to severe.  The following includes a general breakdown of some of the different areas of speech and language, which therapists evaluate and try to remediate.

Communication: the ability to make one's needs known to others through various modalities (i.e. speaking, writing, gesturing, pictures, facial expressions, etc.).

Expressive Language: speech that a student "outputs" verbally or nonverbally, such as answering questions, expressing an idea, or nonverbal messages such as raising a hand.

Receptive Language: pertains to what a student is understanding.  This  is often demonstrated with listening comprehension, auditory processing skills, and ability to following directions.

Articulation: the production of speech sounds in accordance with the primary language of the speaker.  Difficulties with speech sound production often vary in severity.

Pragmatics: this refers to the "social" aspects of language such as turn taking, eye contact, topic maintenance, sarcasm, comprehension and use of appropriate "social" language, and etc.. Pragmatic language difficulties typically include problems using (i.e. greeting, informing, requesting), changing (i.e. according to needs or listener or situation), and/or following the rules of "social" language.

Augmentative or Alternative Communication (AAC):method of communication used by individuals with severe speech disabilities. AAC is for those individuals who are unable to use verbal speech yet are cognitively able or when speech is extremely difficult to understand. These individuals will use gestures, communications boards, pictures, symbols, drawings or a combination of all of these.

The areas that are targeted in speech, language therapy are broad, however common areas addressed in school-based therapy often include difficulties with articulation, use and comprehension of vocabulary, pragmatics, syntax, grammar, auditory comprehension, memory, fluency, and communication.