Articulation is the process of producing sounds to form words. When a child has a speech sound disorder they may have difficulty producing a specific sound(s). As a result, they may be more difficult to understand and it can affect their social interactions and/or learning (reading, writing, etc.).

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a neurological motor speech disorder. This diagnosis is neurological due to the fact that the child knows what he/she wants to say but the brain has difficulty motor planning the movement for accurate speech.

Expressive language refers to the “output” of language and receptive language is “input” of language. Expressive language is a child’s ability to use language to express their thoughts and feelings through verbal, written, gestural, and alternative modalities. Receptive language is the child’s understanding of language. Expressive and Receptive Language Disorders are present when a child has difficulty understanding or utilizing language to communicate their wants and needs.

Pragmatics and social communication include skills that allow one to interact with other people. This can include but is not limited to interpreting body language, empathy, conversational skills, and following conversational expectations.

Fluency disorders include stuttering and cluttering. Stuttering is characterized by repetitions, prolongations, and blocking of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases. In addition, physical tension may be present. Cluttering is characterized by a rapid rate of speech, excessive pauses, disfluencies, and an unusual prosody. These fluency disorders can affect a child’s social interactions and their overall ability to communicate.