Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
UNDERSTANDING SPEECH &
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
11/01/2013
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What you’ll learn
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By the close of this course you will
 Understand the difference between speech, language and
communication,
 Understand the risk factors that might contribute to speech
and/or language disorders,
 Begin to identify at-risk children,
 Understand and begin to use specific terminology, and
 Understand the outcomes of effective intervention .
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Speech vs. Language
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Speech: the motor action occurring from combined use of the
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upper body muscles producing inhalation, exhalation,
phonation and articulation.
We have to learn to modulate our
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Vocalization for volume, pitch, resonance and intonation
Articulation for intelligibility
Fluency for clarity and meaning
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Speech vs. Language
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Language: the use of identified methods that make up a
cultural communication system. This can be hand use, word use
or unaided altogether.
It is often composed of a
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phonology
morphology
semantics
syntax
grammar
pragmatics
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Communication
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Considerations of the third component
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it takes two to tango!
message produced – message received
message understood!
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Development
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Predisposition for language (Vygostky)
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…what children learn on their own and without aided guidance isn’t a
true reflection of what they understand.
language deployed by adults can scaffold children’s
development, yielding what he called a “zone of proximal
development”
Speech production is learned early, yet takes up to 7 years to
develop into a refined model.
Refer to the handout on English speech sound development.
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Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Disorders vs.
developmental delay
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Know the developmental milestones of typical child
development .
Disorders occur outside of this ‘typical’ time period.
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Disorders
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Oral motor disorder
Articulation disorder
Phonological disorder
Language disorder
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Word finding problems
Expression-verbal and/or written problems
Literacy: listening, speaking, reading and writing
Pragmatic disorder
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Oral motor disorder
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Cause: muscle weakness or poor transmission of neural
messages to the peripheral system.
Dysarthria: is caused by a decrease in muscle tone. Babies
who demonstrate poor feeding are often ultimately diagnosed
with low oral tone. This leads to speech production delays.
Apraxia: is caused by a disruption of the neural transmission
of movement to the muscles. This causes problems in a
coordination of speech sounds into words.
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Early signs of speech apraxia has an impact on a child’s ability to
read and leads to further disruption of reading comprehension.
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Example of apraxia of speech
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCw3Jn7NW_s
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Example of dysarthria
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHNSBo3SsmY
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Articulation disorder
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Specific problems relating to producing speech sounds
Children develop a rapid coordination of speech sounds into
words. If muscle tone is weak or the messages are interrupted,
speech disorders occur.
Types of Articulation problems:
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Substitutions
Omissions
Transpositions
Dialect and regional accents are NOT a disorder
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Phonological Process disorder
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Patterns of sound error productions
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Fronting – “tup”/cup, “das”/gas
Backing - “gog”/dog
Consonant Cluster reductions – “boken”/broken
Vowel irregularities
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Language disorders
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A continuum of problems that relate to listening, speaking,
reading and writing.
A child may present with any of the following difficulties:
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Word finding problems,
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Learning new vocabulary
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Following directions or understanding a sequence of thought
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Sound-to-letter correspondence
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Reading fluency & comprehension
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Repeating sequences of numbers, letters or words
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Spelling problems
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Written expression (including grammar, syntax and semantics)
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Communication disorders
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Inability to transmit information to others, given
linguistic and social norms.
Speech production & language formation may be
within normal limits but if the message isn’t received
correctly, Communication Breaks Down
 Autism
spectrum disorders
 Pragmatic disorders
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Voice Disorders
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Problems associated with the
pitch of voice – puberty issues with boys
 volume – too high can be a pragmatic disorder
 resonance quality –talking inappropriately through the
nose
 harsh, hoarse or raspy due to respiration and/or over
use, cancer
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Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Fluency Disorders
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Fluency means the flow of speech
Speech becomes dysfluent when
 Something
interrupts the rhythm of the message.
 Repetitions
 Long
pauses
 Hesitations
 Prolongations
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Caused by ???
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Risk Factors
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Drug and/or alcohol use during pregnancy
Pre term births
Birth complications
Feeding problems
Neurological problems
Lack of home stimulation
Developmental or PDD
Deafness
Physical disabilities
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Incidence
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6.1 million children in the U.S. receive special education
services
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Of that, 1.1 million of those children receive speech and/or
language services!!
However, this number does not include all of the children who
have speech and/or language problems secondary to other
conditions (deaf or hard of hearing, PDD, autism, cerebral palsy)
WHO estimates that about 15% of the world's population lives
with some form of disability
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Identification
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By 3-to-4 years, be attentive to
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poor articulation
poor message formation and expression
poor or decrease vocabulary use
limited direction following
poor ability to remember sound-symbol relationships
inability to count in a sequence or say the alphabet
inability to clap to sounds or syllables in words
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Risk factors for literacy disabilities
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late talkers
speech production disorders
motor apraxias; speech and limb
language delay
disinterest in reading any type of text
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Reading Experiences of Children with
Developmental Disabilities
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These children have fewer opportunities for being involved with literacy
experiences;
These children experience significant communication impairments and are further
impaired by intrinsic or individual factors such as
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Their specific disability type,
Degree of physical impairment and
Cognitive, perceptual or linguistic abilities
They often have significant language disorders which leads to reading impairments;
Many times educators have trouble understanding that children who don’t use
speech can still learn to read; and
Low expectations of learning potential leads to decreased language and literacy
experiences and/or sophistication.
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
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Spoken language abilities are closely related to literacy
development - however, children diagnosed with mild-tomoderate articulation impairments do not necessarily have
trouble with literacy learning.
Children with speech impairments demonstrate deficits in
phonological awareness, narrative and print related skills.
Phonological awareness skills have been identified as being
the best predictor of reading outcomes.
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Importance of intervention
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phonological processing skills (phonological
awareness, working memory, use of phonological
codes to maintain information in memory)
language processing (comprehension and use of
morphology, syntax, production of narratives and
comprehension of figurative language).
…leads to significant literacy impairments in later
years.
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Next steps…
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Develop a policy for screening speech & language use in KG 1
& 2 and any student who is enrolled up to G6,
Develop policies for intervention and monitoring of student’s
progress
Develop a Tier Approach to Intervention (s)/RTI
Develop a Reading Recovery Program for students no longer
receiving daily reading intervention (generally beyond G5)
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013
Feel free to come…
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Thanks for listening
You can find me in Elementary School
Jane W. Murphy, M.S., CCC-SLP
ACS Elementary
11/01/2013