SLP Praxis Comprehensive Vocabulary Review

A complete vocabulary set for the SLP Praxis exam based on the Medical SLPs LLC study guide, including linguistic milestones, neuroanatomy, diagnostics, and legislative terms relating to communicative disorders.

Perlocutionary Period

A stage of typical development (0-8 months) characterized by unintentional communication where sounds reflect automatic body responses such as burping or crying.

Illocutionary Period

A stage of typical development (9-12 months) characterized by intentional communication including jargon, variegated babbling, and Phonetically Consistent Forms (PCFs).

Mean Length of Utterance (MLU)

The average number of morphemes per utterance, calculated using the formula: MLU = \frac{\text{total # of morphemes}}{\text{total # of utterances}}.

Presbycusis

Age-related hearing loss, specifically sensorineural hearing loss involving high-frequency loss due to hair cell damage.

Presbyopia

Age-related vision loss resulting in farsightedness, typically treated with reading glasses.

Presbyphonia

Age-related voice changes including a weaker, breathy voice, higher pitch in men, and lower pitch in women.

Presbyphagia

Age-related swallow changes characterized by decreased strength and sensation, slower swallow response, and more common laryngeal penetration.

Phonology

A component of language form relating to speech sounds and the rules governing them.

Syntax

A component of language form relating to word order and how words are strung together to form sentences.

Morphology

A component of language form relating to word endings and the smallest units of meaning.

Semantics

A component of language content relating to word meanings, vocabulary, and how word meanings link together.

Pragmatics

A component of language use relating to social rules and matching language to specific situations.

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

An innate, pre-specified mechanism proposed in Chomsky's Nativist-Generative View that determines how humans learn language.

Critical Period Hypothesis

The theory that adequate stimuli must be provided before the critical age of $5 - 7$ years old to achieve full command of language.

Efferent Neurons

Motor nerves that transmit signals from the brain down to the body to innervate muscles.

Afferent Neurons

Sensory nerves that transmit signals from sensory organs up to the brain.

Circle of Willis

An anatomical structure that connects the internal carotid and vertebral/basilar systems to provide blood supply to the brain.

Broca’s Area

Brodmann area $44$ located in the frontal lobe, responsible for speech production and motor speech planning.

Wernicke’s Area

Brodmann area $22$ located in the temporal lobe, responsible for language comprehension and processing.

Heschl’s Gyrus

Brodmann area $41$ located in the temporal lobe, responsible for auditory processing.

Angular Gyrus

Brodmann area $39$ involved in semantic processing, language, and cognition.

Fundamental Frequency ($F_0$)

The lowest pure tone component of a sound, perceptually related to pitch.

Harmonics

Whole number multiples of the fundamental frequency, calculated as $F_0 \times \text{Nth Harmonic}$.

Bernoulli Effect

The aerodynamic principle where the speed of air increases through a constriction, causing a decrease in pressure that sucks the vocal folds together.

Validity

The degree to which an assessment measures what it purports to measure.

Reliability

The consistency and stability of an assessment across multiple administrations or varying contexts.

Incidence

The rate of new cases of a disease or disorder developed within a given period of time.

Prevalence

The measure of how many individuals in a population have a particular disease or disorder at a given time.

SODA Errors

A traditional classification system for articulation errors consisting of Substitutions, Omissions, Distortions, and Additions.

Phonetic Analysis

An analysis of the sounds a child uses, whether correct or incorrect, to identify the presence or absence of sounds and sound classes.

Phonemic Analysis

An analysis of the sounds a child uses correctly in comparison to the adult model.

Gliding

A phonological substitution process where a liquid ($/r, l/$) is replaced by a glide ($/w, y/$), typically eliminated by age $6$.

Fronting

A phonological substitution process where a front consonant is used in place of a back consonant, typically eliminated by age $3.5 - 4$.

Stopping

A phonological substitution process where a stop consonant is used in place of a fricative or affricate.

Aphasia

A language disorder resulting from damage to the left hemisphere, characterized by deficits in expressive and receptive language.

Apraxia of Speech

A motor planning and programming disorder resulting from inferior posterior left hemisphere damage, characterized by inconsistent errors and groping.

Dysarthria

A group of motor speech execution disorders characterized by slowness, weakness, or reduced coordination of speech musculature.

Anomia

A symptom of aphasia characterized by difficulty with word retrieval and word finding.

Paraphasia

An error in which an incorrect word, part of a word, or sound is substituted for an intended target word.

Mendelsohn Maneuver

A swallowing treatment technique where the patient holds the larynx in an elevated position for $1 - 3$ seconds to improve UES opening.

Stuttering

A fluency disorder characterized by irregular repetitions, prolongations, blocks, and physical tension.

Cluttering

A fluency disorder characterized by a rapid or irregular rate of speech and abnormal disfluencies that reduce intelligibility.

Carhart’s Notch

A dip in an audiogram at $2000\,Hz$ that typically indicates stapes fixation.

Type B Tympanogram

A flat tympanogram showing no discernible peak, indicating middle ear effusion, a perforated tympanic membrane, or cerumen occlusion.

Core Vocabulary

A set of common, highly functional words used by age-matched peers across many communication environments in AAC.

Fringe Vocabulary

Specific and unique vocabulary used in AAC, mostly nouns, that allow an individual to express unique ideas.

IDEA

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which mandates free and appropriate education for children with disabilities starting from birth to age $21$.

HIPAA

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which provides protection and standards for confidential health information.