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Play therapy is a treatment approach widely used by speech-language pathologists. Symbolic play involves using toys to represent other objects or actions. Symbolic play often mimics daily routines (i.e. using a toy banana as a phone to make a “phone call.”) Symbolic play is correlated with a variety of skills such as language, social-emotional development, perspective-taking, and meta-cognition. Children can

According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), “Social communication disorders are characterized by persistent difficulties with the use of verbal and nonverbal language for social purposes. ” Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) assess and treat this area by providing a comprehensive evaluation and treatment plan specific to the child’s needs. Several treatment options are used to provide support to this population. Examples

Speech-language pathologists evaluate and treat individuals who stutter. A few fluency strategies taught in fluency therapy are slow/easy speech, easy onsets, deep breathing, and strategic pausing. SLPs may also use auditory (hearing) feedback tools to improve a person’s fluency. Delayed auditory feedback (DAF) is a device used where the patient puts on headphones and the tool delays the sound of

Children with a hearing impairment, especially at a young age can have difficulties acquiring speech and language skills. Hearing loss can range in severity from mild, moderate, severe, to profound. Additionally, it is important to note that a hearing loss can occur at any point during the lifespan. Early identification of a hearing impairment is critical in order for intervention

Our vocal folds are what we use to produce voicing for speech. Vocal folds are thin elastic bands of tissue found in the larynx. When we breathe air builds up beneath our vocal folds and blows them apart causing them to vibrate, kind of like when we pluck a guitar string! It is this vibration that creates the sound that

Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder typically due to neurologic impairment of some kind (i.e., stroke, Parkinson’s disease, TBI, etc.) that results in an inability to properly move the muscles in charge of speech production. This inability to properly control these muscles- whether it be due to inability to coordinate movements, paralysis, or weakness- results in disordered speech production. There

Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate the individual sounds of a language. That is the ability to combine sounds together (e.g., /p/, /a/, and /t/ becomes “pat”) or take them apart (the word “pat” is made up of /p/, /a/ and /t/). It also includes the ability to rearrange the sounds of a word (e.g., “swing” becomes

Not all speech sound disorders are alike! We often hear words like articulation and phonology used when talking about speech and disordered sound production. But what is the difference between articulation and phonology? Articulation is concerned with the physical production of the sounds. While phonology refers to the rules in which we combine the sounds of our language. (Bauman-Wängler, 2020)

The topic and even thought of a child going through a traumatic brain injury (TBI) can be a scary and daunting subject. Bicycles, scooters, rollerblades, pools, cars, sports, etc. can all lead to TBIs, so it is important to always take necessary precautions. However, should the unfortunate circumstance happen, it is equally as important to understand the signs and symptoms