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- What does a Speech and Language Pathologist do?
- What Speech and Language Services are available at the Dennett School?
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What does a Speech and Language Pathologist do?
Communication is our most human characteristic. It is essential to learning,
working, and enjoying family life and friendships. A speech and language
pathologist is a communication specialist who works with children, parents
and staff in a collaborative fashion to assess, diagnosis, and provide
therapy for children with various communication disorders. In the school
setting, a speech and language pathologist will concentrate on areas of
speech and language that affect educational progress.
A speech disorder refers to a problem with the actual production of sounds,
whereas a language disorder refers to a difficulty understanding or putting
words together to communicate ideas. Speech disorders could include
difficulty articulating specific sounds, the sequencing of sounds, syllables
and words, or stuttering. Language disorders could include weakness in
listening comprehension, acquiring or retrieving vocabulary, sentence
construction or expansion, organization of language or the inability to use
language in a socially appropriate way. Language disorders can be either
receptive or expressive. Receptive disorders refer to difficulties
understanding or processing language. Expressive disorders refer to
difficulties with verbal and written expression
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What Speech and Language Services are available at the Dennett School?
Language Assessment and Therapy: Students may receive a language
assessment and therapy if they are experiencing delay and or difficulty with
vocabulary development, syntax and grammar, auditory comprehension and
processing deficits, and/or pragmatic language disorders.
Articulation Evaluation and Therapy: Children who have difficulty
producing speech sounds may be referred for an evaluation and therapy.
Articulation disorders include difficulties producing sounds in syllables or
saying words incorrectly to the point that other people can't understand
what's being said.
Fluency Evaluation and Therapy: Children may be referred for
evaluation and therapy for stuttering, a disorder of speech fluency that
interrupts the forward flow of speech. All individuals are disfluent at
times, but what differentiates the person who stutters from someone with
normal speech disfluencies is the kind and amount of the disfluencies.
Remediation
Speech-language therapy involves having a speech and language pathologist
work with a child on a one-to-one basis or in a small group to overcome
difficulties involved with a specific disorder. Speech and language
pathologists use a variety of therapeutic strategies including:
· Language intervention activities. These exercises involve a speech
and language pathologist interacting with a child by playing and talking with
him/her. The therapist may use pictures, books, objects, game type activities
or ongoing events to stimulate language development. The therapist may also
model correct pronunciation and use repetition exercises to build speech and
language skills.
· Articulation therapy. Articulation, or sound production, exercises
involve having the therapist model correct sounds and syllables for a child,
often during play activities. The level of play is age appropriate and
related to the child's specific needs. Articulation therapy involves
physically showing a child how to make certain sounds, such as the "r" sound.
A speech and language pathologist may demonstrate how a child should move his
tongue to produce specific sounds.
· Fluency therapy. The speech and language pathologist works with
disfluent students to help them learn various relaxation techniques and
strategies for decreasing disfluencies and tension while communicating in
various settings. Parents and teachers may also be provided with information
and suggestions to improve their understanding and responses to a student’s
disfluency.
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