Speech Pathology

Speech Sound Disorders

Any difficulty or delay in a person’s ability to produce clear and correct speech sounds is referred to as a “Speech Sound Disorder.” This includes:

• Articulation delays and disorders which are usually caused by structural issues (e.g., cleft lips and/or palates, misaligned teeth, enlarged tongues).
• Motor-based Speech Disorders, such as Childhood Apraxia or Speech and Dysarthria, which are caused by difficulties with ‘planning’ and ‘producing’ the muscular movements required for speech.
• Phonological delays and disorders which are typically caused by difficulties in learning the linguistic rules of ‘when’ and ‘how’ to produce speech sounds.

Stuttering/Speech Fluency

Stuttering is defined as frequent and significant disruptions or “disfluencies” in a person’s speech. Examples of stuttering behaviours include:

• Repetitions of sounds (e.g., “d-d-dog”), syllables (e.g., “mu-mummy”), and words (e.g., “go-go-go away”)
• Prolongations (e.g., “mmmmmilk”)
• Blocks (i.e., an absence of sound) or frequent pausing before words
• Substitutions of ‘tricky’ words
• Recurring use of interjecting phrases (e.g., “you know,” and “um”)
• Secondary or Additional Behaviours (e.g., rapid eye blinking, involuntary head and/or body movements)

Social Skills and Pragmatic Language Disorders

Social Skills and Pragmatic Language Disorders are characterised by difficulties using verbal and nonverbal language for social purposes. For example, an individual may have trouble with:

• Taking turns during play or conversations
• Asking and answering questions appropriately
• Using nonverbal language (e.g., gestures, such as waving)
• Expressing and managing their emotions in a socially-appropriate manner
• Initiating, maintaining, and ending conversation topics
• Adjusting ‘what’ they say and ‘how’ they say it to suit the social context (e.g., who they are talking to, where the interaction is taking place, etc.)

Language Disorders

A person with language difficulties may present with one or both of the following disorders:

• Expressive language disorders occur when a person has difficulties with communicating their own ideas (e.g., they may struggle to form grammatical sentences or use content-specific vocabulary).
• Receptive language disorders occur when a person struggles to interpret the meaning of information they receive (e.g., they may misinterpret the humour of jokes, or not understand given instructions).

Language disorders can affect a person’s spoken, written and nonverbal language abilities.

Voice Disorders

Voice disorders refer to problems with the pitch, volume, or quality of a person’s voice, and may develop or be acquired as a result of:

• Structural problems (e.g., vocal nodules or laryngitis)
• Neurological disorders (e.g., Parkinson’s Disease or Myasthenia Gravis)
• Functional issues, which can cause disorders like Muscle Tension Dysphonia
• Psychological factors, which can cause disorders like Puberphonia

They can also occur when a person’s voice does not accurately reflect their sense of self or identity (e.g., a transgender individual whose pitch is too low/high for their chosen gender).

Feeding and Swallowing Disorders

Feeding Disorders refer to any difficulty with food intake, such as a refusal to eat specific foods or a physical inability to suck, chew, or swallow food.

A Swallowing Disorder or “Dysphagia”, on the other hand, is specific to the swallowing process and can occur at one or more of the following stages:

1. The Oral Phase, which involves sucking, chewing, and moving food or liquid to the back of the mouth.
2. The Pharyngeal Phase, which begins the swallowing process by moving food/liquid from the mouth into the oesophagus.
3. The Oesophageal Phase, which involves passing the food/liquid through the oesophagus and into the stomach.