Pairing or Pairing with Reinforcement
The therapist associates him/herself and the teaching environment with the availability of high rates of positive reinforcement through access to desired items and/or activities. The goal is for the client to see the center as a fun place to be and the therapist as the person who delivers good things.
Palatal Fronting is a phonological process in which the palatal fricatives are produced as /s/ or /z/, so that ‘ship’ and ‘shine’ sound like ‘sip’ and ‘sine’ and ‘measure’ and ‘explosion’ sound like ‘mezza’ and ‘exploe-zun’.
The palate is the ‘roof of the mouth’. It comprises the hard palate which runs from the alveolar ridge at the front of the mouth to the beginning of the soft palate (velum) at the back; and the soft palate, which extends from the rear of the hard palate nearly to the back of the throat, terminating in the uvula.
The substitution of grammatical morphemes by people with aphasia.
The child plays near or beside another child using some or all of the same/similar materials as the other child without trying to modify or influence the other child and being mainly concerned with toy materials, not with relating to the other child. Predominates between 24-30 months.
This is a strategy that can be used to help children learn language. Parallel talk is similar to self talk, except rather than talking about what you are seeing, hearing or doing you are talking about your child is seeing, hearing or doing. So, when your child is playing with blocks you might say “Wow! You just built a tower! Oh you have the blue block. You threw the red block! Oh let’s see how many blocks there are, one, two, three blocks!” Notice in parallel talk, you are not asking questions of the child but rather are just modeling language.
Inability to move a muscle.
The production of unintended syllables, words, or phrases by people with aphasia.
Services provided by school, county board of DD, and other educational agency employees who are adequately trained to assist in the provision of special education and related services to children with disabilities. Paraprofessionals work under the supervision of teachers, intervention specialists, and/or related service providers. Other titles used to identify these service providers include teacher assistants, educational aides, school psychology aides, occupational therapy assistants, physical therapy assistants and job coaches.
(a) A biological or adoptive parent of a child but not a foster parent of a child; (b) A guardian generally authorized to act as the child’s parent, or authorized to make educational decisions for the child (but not the state if the child is a ward of the state); (c) An individual acting in the place of a biological or adoptive parent (including a grandparent, stepparent, or other relative) with whom the child lives, or an individual who is legally responsible for the child’s welfare; or (d) A surrogate parent who has been appointed in accordance with rule 3301-51-05 of the Administrative Code. (e) Except as provided in3301-31-01 of the Administrative Code, paragraph (B)(42)(f), the biological or adoptive parent, when attempting to act as the parent under this rule and when more than one party is qualified under this rule to act as a parent, must be presumed to be the parent for purposes of this chapter of the Administrative Code unless the biological or adoptive parent does not have legal authority to make educational decisions for the child. (f) If a judicial decree or order identifies a specific person or persons under 3301-51-01 of the Administrative Code, paragraphs (B)(42)(a) to (B)(42)(c), to act as the parent of a child or to make educational decisions on behalf of a child, then such person or persons shall be determined to be the parent for purposes of this rule.
A parent of a child with a disability employed by a school district to assist education personnel and families by providing training, support, and information services.
A center assisted under Sections 671 or 672 of the IDEA.
A program of parent education and infant/toddler intervention which stresses early exposure to language and attention to developmental processes that enhance the learning of language. Some programs include early exposure to amplification and the use of hearing aids to stimulate the auditory channel.
A disorder of the brain, which is characterized by tremors and having difficulty with movement and coordination.
Any agency or institution that collects, maintains, or uses personally identifiable information, or from which information is obtained, under Part B of the IDEA.
Arizona is one of the states that passed third-grade retention legislation in May, 2010 called “Move on When Reading.” A.R.S. requires that a pupil not be promoted from the third grade if the pupil obtains a score on the reading portion of the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards test, (AIMS). The PARCC will replace AIMS in 2014.
One who engages in the scientific study of the nature of disease and its causes, processes, development, and consequences.
Excessive pauses in frequency or duration to postpone or avoid the moment of stuttering. For example:
A doctor who specializes in working with children.
When someone is excluded from a social relationship or interaction by peers.
A number that indicates the percentage of people who are below a certain level on a variable value such as a score on a test. Percentiles are described on a scale of 1 to 99 and are useful for illustrating one’s relative standing in a population. For example, if a child is in the 80th percentile, he or she has scored the same as or better than 80% of test takers.
Percentage of individuals of a certain age range who scored below a predetermined raw score on an assessment.
Conductive hearing loss and hearing losses associated with the inner ear.
Repetition of the same word behavior or thought, especially when it is interfering with functionality. May be seen with PDD or aphasia.
Repetitive use of language or repetitive mention of a specific topic. Appearance of “being stuck” in the need to verbalize specific words, phrases, or topics.
This term was first adopted in 1980 by the American Psychiatric Association. Since then it has been retained and achieved quite widespread acceptance in the Americas. It was chosen to describe both autism and conditions which share similarities with autism. In the UK and continental Europe the term Autistic Spectrum Disorder was developed to serve the same purpose. The word developmental emphasises that the problem is present early in the child’s life. Pervasive implies that many aspects of the child’s development are affected.
In the UK and Europe, it is argued that although the disorders are pervasive they are not pervasive of every aspect of development. The term is criticised as uninformative in that it does not describe the nature of the abnormal features associated with the condition. By contrast, many Europeans argue that “autism” has proved to be a relatively viable diagnostic term. It should be retained, they would argue, because it has won wide recognition, describing a difficult condition which requires special help. Also, members of the public are beginning to understand the needs of people with autism. Thus, the term Autistic Spectrum Disorder has a certain useful currency.
In America it is believed that the term Pervasive Developmental Disorders has an advantage over autism because it is free from misconceptions about the condition. The argument is that various conditions included in the class of pervasive developmental disorders share some similarities, but the assumption that they all represent some variant of autism is not proven and may not be useful.
This diagnosis is given to people who are on the autism spectrum but do not completely meet the criteria for another spectrum disorder, such as autism or Asperger syndrome.
An impairment in the recognition of familiar voices.
The production of voice through vocal fold vibration.
Shortest unit of sound in a given language that can be recognized as being distinct from other sounds in the language. For many scholars the phoneme is the fundamental unit of phonology. Phonology, as an area of study, has shown that spoken language can be broken down into a string of sound units (phonemes), and that each language has a small, relatively fixed set of these phonemes. Most phonemes can be put into groups (stops, fricatives, etc.).
A phoneme collapse is a phonological rule. Phoneme collapses are seen as compensatory strategies that are organised according to aspects of adult system in terms of place and manner of articulation and voicing. Analysis in terms of phoneme collapses provides a holistic assessment of child’s speech that is child-based rather than adult-based (Williams, 2000a). The following example is of a phoneme collaps of one sound to many occasioning extensive homophony (different words pronounced the same way).
The knowledge of the sound sequence regularities and rules of a language.
The ability in which listeners are able to hear, identify and manipulate phonemes, the smallest units of sound that can differentiate meaning.
Phonemic or phonological development is the gradual acquisition, by children, of an adult-like speech sound system. The phonological or phonemic level is in charge of the brainwork that goes into organising the speech sounds into patterns of sound contrasts so that we can make sense when we talk. A five year old child with a phonemic (phonological) difficulty might find it impossible to make the sentences ‘He cut himself on the glass’ and ‘He cut himself on the grass’ sound different from each other (i.e., contrast with each other), perhaps pronouncing them both as, ‘He tut himseff on da bwaht’.
Phonetic development is the development of the ability to articulate individual speech sounds or ‘phones’. The phonetic level takes care of the motor (articulatory) act of producing the vowels and consonants so that we have a repertoire all the sounds we need in order to speak our language(s).
Phonetic transcription is the process of writing down a person’s speech using phonetic symbols. Speech-language pathologists in Australia and most of the world use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to do this. There are symbols for vowels, diphthongs, triphthongs, consonants, pauses and intonation to use in broad transcription, as well as numerous symbols called ‘diacritics’ to use in narrow (very detailed) transcription.
Representing the sounds of speech with a set of distinct symbols, each designating a single sound; phonetic spelling.
Phonetics, a branch of Linguistics, is the scientific study of speech. Sometimes a phonetic transcription is said to be written (or transcribed) ‘in phonetics’.
Relationships between written letters and their spoken sounds.
Phonology is the study of how speech sounds (i.e. phonemes) are organized and used in a language. This includes the study of the individual sounds of a language (phonemes), their patterns, how they are learned (phonological development) and how they work and go together.
Phonological analysis is one component of Independent Analysis (see the Glossary entry for Core Speech Assessment Battery. In a basic phonological analysis the SLP/SLP phonetically transcribes single words and conversational speech and then evaluates what the child has in his or her phonological system, what is missing, and what intervention is needed.
Refers to an aphasia in which the client may “know” or be able to mentally recall the word, but has difficulty thinking of the sounds needed to say the word. Moreover, many clients experience difficulty with syllabification, the ability to know how many syllables that the word has.
The awareness of sounds in words both when listening and reading. Phonological awareness has been shown to be a very strong indicator in the success of a child learning to read. Reading programs for children with dyslexia or reading difficulties address this as one component of instructions. There are several components of phonological awareness which can be taught in the classroom, at home, and in speech/language therapy. Some of these components include rhyming, counting sounds/syllables in words, and initial sound awareness.
A phonological delay refers to when a child continues to use phonological processes (sound simplifications, see Phonological Processes) in his speech beyond the age at which it is no longer developmentally appropriate.
A phonological disorder is a speech sound disorder that affects the phonological (phonemic) level. The child has difficulty organising speech sounds into a system contrasts. These contrasts are called ‘phonemic contrasts’. For a listener, the most obvious characteristics of phonological disorder are the child’s poor intelligibility, and the presence of homophony (homonymy). Homophony is the term used to describe a child’s production of different words the same way (e.g., ‘coat’, ‘coach’ and ‘Coke’ all pronounced as ‘tote’). Phonological disorder is sometimes referred to as a Speech Sound Disorder that occurs at the linguistic, cognitive or language level.
Difficulty selecting and using the correct sounds necessary for speech. These can be characterized depending on where or how the sound is made. See backing, fronting, stopping, consonant harmony and cluster reduction for more information.
Temporary storage of phonological information in short-term memory.
A child with a phonological problem has a difficulty pronouncing a number of sounds. The sounds which are mispronounced can be grouped according to certain features, such as the place in the mouth where the sound is produced or how it is produced. There are many phonological processes (sound rules) which a child uses which affect the pronunciation of groups of similar sounds. Examples include…
A child may make use of more than one phonological process, even within one word. The processes may be affected by the position of the sounds in the words. For example, fronting sounds only at the beginning of words, so that “cup” becomes “tup” but “back” is pronounced correctly.
The child may use the processes consistently or inconsistently – every k and s sound at the beginning of words, or only some of them. Because of the number of sounds affected, the child’s speech is often unintelligible to strangers and to the family, causing both parties to become frustrated.
A phonological problem may also be referred to as a phonological disorder. A child is seen to have a phonological delay when using phonological processes which are more typical of a younger child. A child’s phonology is disordered when the processes used are inconsistent and not following the normal pattern of phonological development. Phonological problems may be caused by many factors including…
Phonological problems can also be associated with reading difficulties. A phonological problem cannot be caused by a tongue-tie. A tongue-tie affects the pronunciation of one sound only – r.
They are the typical patterns of how a child simplifies his speech (so “normal” speech sound errors) as he learn to speak. A child is not born being able to produce all the sounds and sound patterns of his/her language. As a child is learning how to speak English, he will simplify sounds and sound patterns. For example, a young child will simplify the word “bottle” to something like “baba.” A young child may also say “goggie” for “doggie,” “sue” for “shoe,” or “nail” for “snail.” Phonological processes, then, are the normal patterns of simplification all children use as they are learning to speak.
Provides assessment and treatment for disorders related to physical and musculoskeletal injuries. Therapy emphasizes remediation of or compensation for mobility, gait, muscle strength, and postural deficits.
Related service; includes therapy to remediate gross motor skills.
Picture Exchange Communication System created by Bondy and Frost (1994). Requires the child to exchange a picture of a desired item with another person in order to retrieve the item and thus teach the initiation of communication.
An important part of early language development. The child, without any other clues (i.e. by the shape of the pieces / help from an adult) must be able to visually match the pictures which are the same.
A cluster of diseases that make breathing and feeding challenging, including a cleft palate, small jaw and a tongue that goes back toward the throat.
Subjective quality primarily associated with frequency; e.g., high or low.
Consonants are made by obstructing or constricting airflow at some point in the vocal tract. The point of obstruction or constriction is called the place of articulation. The ‘places’ of articulation are Bilabial, Labiodental, Interdental, Alveolar, Palatal, Velar and Glottal. Note that there are other classification systems that differ slightly.
Consonants are classified in terms of their place of Articulation, Manner of Articulation and Voicing.
The chart below is a PVM Chart showing the consonants of English. The voiced glide /w/ is included twice because it has two places of articulation, bilabial and velar. The glottal stop is also there because it occurs in some dialects (varieties) of English.
Providing no attention to negative and maladaptive behavior in order to deliberately and cognitively reduce its frequency.
A term, unfortunately used by some rehabilitation specialists and medical staff, that indicates that a person with aphasia is no longer expected to make progress. The client may be told to expect a plateau after a certain period of time.
A hearing test in which the audiologist teaches the child to respond with some action – a game response – whenever he hears a sound. He may learn, for instance, to put a peg in a hole, a ring on a peg, or a piece in a puzzle every time he hears a sound. The audiologist uses the audiometer, a piece of equipment that presents different tones (from low to high pitch, usually within the speech range) at varying levels of loudness to assess a child’s hearing sensitivity.
A consonant produced by the complete blockage of airflow, followed by the buildup of air pressure, which is then suddenly released ([b], [p], for example). See Stops.
Some experts define ‘polysyllabic words’ as words of more than one syllable, and others define them as words of more than two syllables. There is a tendency nowadays, however, to avoid the ambiguous terms ‘polysyllabic words’ and ‘multisyllabic words’, preferring ‘one syllable words’, ‘two syllable words’ and ‘long words’ instead. See Long Word and Multisyllabic Words.
A collection of a student’s work which demonstrates achievement, efforts, and progress over a period of time.
PBS is a process and philosophy that helps students with behavioral problems succeed in school using functional analysis and positive reinforcements to affect behavioral change.
Observation of the brain through the use of positive emission tomography.
After the development of speech.
Hearing loss acquired after first learning a language.
A hearing loss that happens after a person’s development of speech and language.
To maximize your aphasia recovery, you must engage in many hours of practice using smart exercises with effective materials and innovative technology.
A person who assists a person with aphasia with engaging in the hours of daily practice necessary for maximal recovery.
Difficulties in understanding the social rules of language. For example: how to adapt language for different purposes (e.g. demanding / requesting / commenting etc); how to adapt language for different conversational partners (e.g. speaking to one’s boss versus speaking to a best friend); how to follow conversational rules (e.g. taking turns, maintaining topic, rephrasing if misunderstood, use of non-verbal skills etc).
Social/ pragmatic language refers to the way an individual uses language to communicate and involves three major communication skills: using language to communicate in different ways (like greeting others, requesting, protesting, asking questions to gain information, etc), changing language according to the people or place it is being used (i.e. we speak differently to a child than we do to an adult; we speak differently inside vs. outside), and following the rules for conversation (taking turns in conversation, staying on topic, using and understanding verbal and nonverbal cues, etc). SLPs can work with your child.
The use, function or purpose of communication; the study of the rules that govern the use of language in social situations.
Before the development of speech.
Refers to hearing loss which occurs before the child develops language.
Skills needed before language can develop e.g. eye contact, turn taking, pretend play.
Using evidence-based academic or behavioral strategies before referring a student to special education.
This refers to the skills which begin to develop from a very early age and which precede language development. These include listening skills, turn taking, eye contact, anticipation of activities, copying/imitation skills, joint attention, etc. This list is not exhaustive.
Factors that result in the start of a language or communication problem.
Using reminders of expectations and appropriate behavior prior to situations where negative behavior is thought to occur.
Factors that make a person more inclined to develop an impairment related to communication or language.
A child who: (a) Is at least three years of age and not six years of age; and (b) Meets the definition of a “child with a disability” in paragraph (B)(10) of 3301-51-01 of the Administrative Code or, at the discretion of the school district, is a child who:
This is a description of the student’s present level of functioning and how the individual’s disability impacts his/her progress in the general education curriculum (achievement) and setting (behavior/function).
Statements developed from relevant information about a child that provides a “picture” of the child including strengths and needs. This information includes progress on the current IEP, the evaluation team report, input from parents and child, interventions, assessments, observations and special factors.
A dementia that results in a progressive loss of language abilities, while memory is relatively preserved.
Basic knowledge about print and how it is typically organized on a page. For example, print conveys meaning, print is read left to right, and words are separated by spaces.
Data taken once at the beginning of every day for each program target to document if client’s response was correct or incorrect.
Knowledge of how to perform skills and actions (i.e., procedures) such as driving a car, using a cell phone or keyboarding.
Available to parents of students with disabilities, this document outlines a student’s (and his/her parents’) rights with respect to the state regulations that govern special education. This document should be provided to parents at every annual IEP meeting.
An estimate of the course and outcome of a disease/disorder, which represents a performance profile at the time of diagnosis but is rooted over time. For example, a speech-language pathologist may state in an initial evaluation that “the prognosis for attaining these objectives is fair.”
Clients work on various programs within the ABLLS or supplemental programs developed by the therapist. Within each program, the client must learn a number of targets to meet criteria for mastery.
Monitoring how a student is doing by keeping track of behavior, recording data and transferring the data to a graph for a visual representation.
In stuttering, the lengthening of a speech sound or maintaining the posture of the lips, tongue, or other parts of the speech mechanism in an attempt to modify the stuttering pattern. A prolongation is when a sound within a word is extended longer than the amount of time typically used for production. Examples include:
A prompt is something given to the client to increase the likelihood of a correct response. There are several types of prompts including: full or partial physical (physically helping the client to complete the task), model (the client observes the therapist demonstrating the behavior), gesture (indicate the item requested by pointing), and verbal (the therapist provides a vocal prompt).
Using cues to build desired behavior. Verbal prompting often involves saying a single sound or word to help a child remember what to say or do. Physical prompting that involves physical assistance or touch can be helpful to initiate motor or self-help skill. Prompts should be reduced gradually (faded) until they can be eliminated.
The speech and language that we use for everyday conversation. It happens when a person creatively formulates words into sentences with regard to the situation at hand.
The subconscious awareness of weight, posture, movement, position in space in relationship to the body; based on sensory input from the joints and muscles.
The feedback that the brain receives from the muscles and nerves about the physical feelings of where the body (or a part of it) is and how it is moving.
Proprioception is the ability to control where one’s body parts are and what they are doing. Proprioception provides information on where the limbs are in space without looking. The receptors for this sense are located in the joints. It helps control the amount of force needed for different tasks, ex. petting a dog without hitting the dog. Part of this process involves oral motor skills which requires proprioceptive awareness, as we do not visually monitor mouth movement but need input from the muscles and joints in the mouth. A child with poor proprioception may have stiff and uncoordinated movements, not be able to do things without looking and have difficulty dressing and undressing.
An act indicating a sense of empathy, caring and social conduct.
Melody of speech determined primarily by modifications of pitch, quality, strength, and duration; perceived primarily as stress and intonational patterns. Prosody is an essential aspect of speech. Prosody or prosodic features are added to the sequences of speech sounds. These features include pitch, intonation (the rise and fall of the pitch of the voice), stress (emphasis), rhythm, voice quality, loudness and rate.
A physician who specializes in psychiatry. (MD) Psychiatry. The branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental and emotional disorders.
An assessment process that helps to identify cognitive strengths and challenges of students. It also gives information that helps to confirm or disconfirm mental health diagnoses, including developmental delays and attention disorders.
Related service; includes administering psychological and educational tests, interpreting test results, interpreting child behavior related to learning.
A person trained and educated to perform psychological research, testing, and therapy. Holds a Master’s degree or ph.D in the field of psychology. Since not an MD, they may not prescribe medications.
Removing a child from a classroom so that he or she can participate in a therapy session.
Communication intervention by a speech-language pathologist within a classroom.
The speaker is using visual force to help push out the words while experiencing a block.