Speech Language Pathology Terminology & Therapeutic Process

Speech Language Pathology Terminology and Therapeutic Process

Overview

• The session focuses on understanding terminology related to communication disorders and the therapeutic process.

• Aims to equip students with the ability to explain terminology in both professional and client-centered ways.

• Demonstrates foundational knowledge of the therapeutic process to support skill integration throughout the course.

Scope of Practice & NICU

• Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) work with communication and swallowing across the lifespan, covering language, articulation, swallowing, and cognition.

• The scope of practice documents for SLPs and assistants outline frameworks, domains of service delivery, and service delivery areas.

• Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is a specialized area involving swallowing and feeding in infants, requiring specific expertise and collaboration with nurses.

The Therapeutic Process: Three General Steps

1. Pre-therapeutic Tasks:

   • Involves gathering data, choosing therapy targets, determining baselines, and writing goals. Data-driven approach is emphasized.

   • Importance of data for ethical practice and efficacy.

2. Session Planning and Implementation:

   • Includes determining teaching methods (group, individual), developing scaffolding strategies (prompting and fading), and creating therapy activities.

   • Developing a generalization plan is crucial but often challenging, especially in articulation therapy. Team collaboration can aid generalization.

3. Session Documentation:

   • Involves designing for data collection and documenting sessions. Progress notes are created based on collected data.

Speech vs. Language

• Speech: How we say sounds and words, including articulation, phonology, voice, and fluency.

• Language: The words we use to share ideas, encompassing receptive and expressive language. Can be verbal, nonverbal, or written.

Components of Speech

• Articulation: How we make speech sounds using the mouth, lips, tongue and cheeks.

• Voice: Vary in intensity pitch and quality. Can be affected by overuse, yelling, or conditions like viruses or COVID.

• Fluency: Rhythm and flow of speech. Variations can result in stuttering or cluttering, influenced by stress or brain injury.

Receptive and Expressive Language

• Receptive Language: Understanding verbal, nonverbal, and written language.

• Expressive Language: Using verbal, nonverbal, and written methods to share ideas.

  • Verbal: Spoken words.

  • Nonverbal: Body language, tone of voice, gestures, facial expressions.

  • Written: Text.

Venn Diagram Components of Language

• Content: Semantics (vocabulary).

• Form: Phonology (sounds), morphology (word structure), syntax(grammar).

• Use: Pragmatics (communication in context).

Components of Language

Semantics

• Governs the meaning of words and relationships between them.

  • Receptive Semantics: Understanding vocabulary.

  • Expressive Semantics: Choosing vocabulary to communicate.

• Example: Describing a dog (Ellie) by category (pet, animal), description (soft, little, adorable), parts (paws, ears, tail), location, antonym, actions, and associations.

Phonology

• Receptive: Hearing and deciphering differences between phonemes.

• Expressive: Ability to produce correct phonological patterns.

• Systematic impairments result in phonological processes. For example:

  • Changing "dog" to "dot" is fronting.

  • Changing "frog" to "dog" is stopping.

  • Cluster reduction in words like "truck"

Morphology

• Understanding how word prefixes and endings impact meaning.

• Expressive morphology involves using prefixes and endings to change word meaning.

• Example: Using morphology to indicate number: $one \space coffee$ versus $three \space coffees$.

• Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning.

Syntax

• Refers to overall grammar and sentence structure.

• Receptive syntax: Understanding different sentence structures.

• Expressive syntax: Using various sentence structures.

• Example: Yoda's inverted syntax.

Pragmatics

• Focuses on overall communication and context.

• Involves understanding the intent and social cues in communication.

• Example asking, "Can you get it" versus, "May I get it."

Acquired Brain Injury

• Disorder resulting from injury to the brain since birth, either traumatic or non-traumatic.

Types of Brain Injury

• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): External force to the head (e.g., motor vehicle accidents, falls).

• Non-Traumatic Brain Injury: No external force; caused by tumors, stroke, encephalitis, infections, or anoxia.

Signs and Symptoms

• Include physical, sensory, behavioral, cognitive, speech-language, pragmatic, and swallowing impairments.

Aphasia

• Language disorder caused by stroke, TBI, tumor, or infection.

• Two main types discussed:

  • Broca's Aphasia: Non-fluent language, difficulty verbalizing responses.

  • Wernicke's Aphasia: Fluent but meaningless utterances, decreased comprehension.

• Classified by fluency (fluent vs. non-fluent) and the area of challenge (receptive vs. expressive).

Apraxia

• Neurogenic disorder affecting neural pathways between the brain and oral structures.

• Results in decreased ability to plan and sequence movements for speech.

• Can be caused by stroke, TBI, tumor, infection, or can be congenital.

Childhood Apraxia of Speech

• Difficulty connecting the motor part of the brain to the mouth to produce sounds.

• Signs and symptoms include halting speech, articulatory groping, inconsistency, and sound distortions.