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tr>Personal Amplification SystemAn amplification device that utilizes a Bluetooth streamer, mini remote microphones, or an app that may be used in conjunction with hearing aids or cochlear implants.

See also Amplification Devices, Hearing Loss.

Term Definition
Palatal Fronting See Phonological Processes – Substitution – Depalatalization
Palate The roof of the mouth which includes the hard palate and the soft palate (or velum).

Link 1: Wikipedia – Palate
Papilloma This is a wort like growth that spreads over the vocal folds, laryngeal walls and / or epiglottis. (Papilloma is a general medical term for a tumor of the skin or mucous membrane and can occur on other parts of the body too.) These nodular masses vary in color from pinkish white to red. The growth is typically benign, but may multiply quickly and block the airway requiring surgery to remove. This is called recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP)

Link 1:
Link 1: HealthGrades – Papilloma
Paralanguage Also paralinguistics. Communication features that aid in comprehension and expression but are not a part of formal language system including prosody, pitch, volume, intonation, body language, facial expressions and hand gestures. (See Kinesics)

Link 1: Wikipedia – Paralanguage
Link 2: Youtube – Kinesics overview and demonstration. University to Colorado Students
Pediatric Relating to the branch of medical science that deals with the health, development and diseases of infants, children and adolescents.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Pediatrics
Perception The awareness and appreciation of the sensory signals that are then identified, organized and interpreted to understand the environment or situation.

  • Auditory Perception – The identification, organization and interpretation of sound received through the ear.
  • Haptic Perception – The identification, organization and interpretation of tactile (touch) data.
  • Proprioception Perception – (Kinesthetic Perception) The identification, organization and interpretation of data received through the movements and positions of muscles, tendons and joints.
  • Visual Perception – The identification, organization and interpretation of visual stimuli received through the eyes.
Link 1: Wikipedia – Perception
Phonation Voiced sounds produced by vocal fold vibrations.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Phonation
Phoneme The smallest unit of sound of a language that can be distinguished from other sounds in the language and has meaning. There are 44 phonemes in the English language each one representing a different sound a person can make. There are 26 letters in the alphabet, so some combination of letters make phonemes. There are 12 vowels, 24 consonants and 8 diphthongs. Example – Ch has three different sounds  /ʃ/, /k/ and /tʃ/. /ʃ/ chef, /k/ Chord and /tʃ/ Child.

  • Chomsky and Halle (1968) proposed 17 different features to describe phonemes.
    • Anterior – Phoneme produced when the point of constriction is anterior (placed before). (/ʃ/,/|/,/z/)
    • Back – Phonemes made with a retracted tongue position. (/ɔ:/, /g/)
    • Consonantal – Phonemes produced with a constriction of the vocal tract. (All consonants except /h/)
    • Coronal – Phonemes produced with the tongue blade in a raised position. (/θ/,/t/)
    • Continuant – Phonemes produced in a steady state. (/θ/, /s/)
    • Distributed – Phonemes produced when the constriction is extended through the vocal tract. (/θ/, /ʃ/)
    • High – Phonemes made with raised tongue position. (/k/,/i/)
    • Interrupted – Phonemes produced when the airstream is completely occluded at some point during production. (/p/, /b/)
    • Lateral – Phonemes produced when the air stream is emitted laterally over the sides of the tongue. (/|/)
    • Low – Phonemes produced with a low tongue position. (/æ/./h/)
    • Nasal – Phonemes produced when ari is emitted thought the nasal cavity. (/n/, /m/)
    • Round – Phonemes produced with the lips in a rounded position. (/o/, /w/)
    • Sonorant – Phonemes produced when the airstream is unimpeded. (/m/, /|/)
    • Strident – Phonemes produced when the air is forced through a small opening causing friction. (/f/, /v/)
    • Tense – Phonemes produced with tension in the muscles. (/i/, /u/)
    • Vocalic – Voiced phonemes produced with open vocal tract. (Vowels, /r/, /l/)
    • Voice – Phonemes produced with the vibration of the vocal folds. (/z/, /v/)
Link 1: Wikipedia – Phonemes
Link 2: The English Club – Interactive Phonemic Chart with Sound and examples.
Phonetics The study of speech sounds – the physiological production and the auditory perception of sounds.

Link 1: Sounds of Speech iOS app University of Iowa includes animations of the phonetics sounds
Link 2: Wikipedia – Phonetics
Phonological Disorder Phonologic disorder is a language disorder that affects the cognitive or linguistic level. An articulation disorder happens at the phonetic level (the motor action of producing all the sounds needed for communication). A child with an articulation disorder is able to process the words in the proper order, but has trouble producing the individual speech sounds with their articulators (lips, tongue, teeth, jaw, velum, pharynx). A child with a phonological disorder can produce the sounds, but often omits them (Book becomes Buh) or substitutes a sound for another (Fire becomes tire). Both disorders adversely affect speech intelligibility. A child can have both disorders at the same time.

Link 1: What are Phonological Disorders? Can they be corrected? SuperDuper Handy Handouts.
Phonological Processes Patterns of sound errors that young children make to simplify speech as they are learning to talk. Phonological disorders occur when the errors persist beyond the proper developmental age or when the errors are not typically heard during speech development.

There are three groups of processes:

  1. Substitution: the correct sound is changed into an incorrect sound, usually based on a predictable pattern.
    • Affrication: a fricative sound (/f, v, Ɵ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ȝ, h/) replaced with an affricate (/ch/ or /tʃ/, /J/ or /dȝ/). For example, show becomes ch Usually eliminated by 3 yrs. of age.
    • Backing – When sounds that should be made at the front of the mouth, such as /t/ or /d/, are substituted with sounds made in the back of the mouth like /g/ or /k/. For example, “door” would be “goor”. This occurs in children with severe phonological disorders.
    • Deaffrication – When an affricate (/ch/, /dz/) is replaced with a stop (/b/, /d/, /g/, /k/, /p/ or /t/) or a fricative (/f/, /h/, /s/, /sh/, /th/, /z/, /zh/). For example: “fair” for “chair”. (Eliminated by 4yrs)
    • Depalatalization (Palatal Fronting)- When a non-palatal consonant is substituted for a palatal consonant. For example: “dane” for “Jane”. (Eliminated by 5yrs)
    • Gliding – Gliding is the term used when a child replaces a specific consonant with a “w” or “y”. For example “rabbit” would sound like “wabbit”. (Eliminated by 5 years)
    • Labialization – When a labial consonant is substituted for a non-labial consonant. For example: “pie” for “die”. (Eliminated by 6 years)
    • Stopping –  When a fricative sound like /f/, /s/, /z/, /f/, /v/, /h/, /sh/ and /zh/ is substituted with a stop consonant like /b/, /d/, /p/, /t/, /g/ or /k/. For example “dan” for “fan” or “pine” for “sign”. (eliminated by 3- 4 ½ years depending on the sound)
    • Velar Fronting – Fronting is the term used when sounds that should be made at the back of the mouth, such as /g/, /k/, /ng/ are substituted with sounds made in the front of the mouth like /t/ or /d/. A child who is fronting might say “dee” instead of “key” or say “doh” instead of “go”. (eliminated by 3 ½ yrs)
    • Vowelization – When a syllabic consonant is replaced with a vowel usually /l/ and /er/. For example: “apple” becomes “appo” and “diaper” becomes “diapah”.
  2. Assimilation: the correct sound is produced with the property(s) of another sound in the word. Also called harmony. Usually eliminated by age 4 yrs.
    • Consonant assimilation: also called consonant harmony; one consonant takes on the property(s) of another consonant in the word. Various types:
      • Alveolar Assimilation: a non-alveolar sound is changed to assimilate an alveolar sound (/t/, /d/, /l/, /n/, /s/, /z/) in the word. For example, soup becomes sout.
      • Labial Assimilation: a non-labial sound is changed to assimilate a labial sound (/p/, /b/, /m/, /w/) in the word. For example, bed becomes beb.
      • Nasal Assimilation: a non-nasal sound is changed to assimilate a nasal sound (/m/, /n/, /ng/) in the word. For example, mop becomes mom.
      • Velar Assimilation: a non-velar sound is changed to a velar (/k/, /g/, /ng/) sound. (Total or partial). For example kuck for cup (total) and kug for cup (partial).
    • Prevocalic Voicing – When a voiceless sound that precedes a vowel is changed to a voiced sound. For example “pie” becomes “bie”.
    • Postvocalic Voicing / Devoicing Final Consonant – When the final voiced consonant is replaced with a voiceless consonant. “sad” becomes “sat” and “big” becomes “bik”.
  3. Simplification of the structure of syllables
    • Cluster Reduction – When a child reduces a consonant cluster to a single consonant. For example:  Total cluster reduction “Spot” becomes “to” and a partial spot” becomes “pot”. Partial is also called cluster substitution. (Eliminated by 3 or 3 ½)
    • Epenthesis – When an unstressed vowel usually “uh” is added between two consonants. For example: “blue” becomes “buh lue”. and “play” becomes “Puh lay”.
    • Final Consonant Deletion –When the child deletes final consonants. For example: “pig” becomes “pi”. (Eliminated by 3 or 3 ½)
    • Initial Consonant Deletion –When the child deletes initial consonants. For example: “shoe” becomes “oo”.
    • Reduplication – When a syllable is repeated in a word to create a multisyllabic word. For example: “kitty” becomes “titi” and “dad” becomes “dada”.
    • Stridency Deletion – When the strident consonant (/s/,/z/,/f/,/v/,/ch/ and /j/) is deleted or substituted with a non-strident consonant. For example: “but” becomes “bus”.
    • Unstressed Syllable Deletion – When the syllable with the least amount of stress is omitted. For example: “Potato” becomes “tato” and “telephone” becomes “tefone”. (Also called syllable reduction).
Link 1: What are Phonological Disorders? Can they be corrected? SuperDuper Handy Handouts.
Phonology The study of sound patterns focusing on the rules and organization of sound units in a spoken language.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Phonation
Phonotrauma Abuse or misuse of the vocal cords (folds). Phonotrauma can lead to various lesions (polyps, nodules, cysts and papillomas)
Physical Therapy Physical therapy helps people restore movement and mobility after an injury or illness. A physical therapist (PT) uses manual therapy, heat, cold, ultrasound, electrical stimulation, stretching and exercising (weights, walking, bands, etc.) to reduce pain and swelling and increase strength, flexibility, endurance, coordination and balance. In many cases, a PT will work with a speech language pathologists and occupational therapists.

Link 1: Occupational Therapy vs Physical Therapy – Diffen.com
Piaget Cognitive Stages See Cognitive Development
Place of Articulation The location of the air constriction or narrowing in the vocal tract by an articulator when a consonant sound is produced. The English language uses the following places of articulation

  • Exo-lanial (outer part of the lip)
  • Endo-labial (inner part of the lip)
  • Dental (teeth)
  • Alveolar (front part of alveolar ridge)
  • Post-alveolar (rear part of the alveolar ridge)
  • Pre-palatal (front part of the hard palate that arches up)
  • Palatal (hard palate)
  • Velar (soft palate)
  • Uvular (uvula)
  • Pharyngeal (pharyngeal wall)
  • Glottal (vocal folds)
  • Epiglottal (epiglottis)
  • Radical (tongue root)
  • Postero-dorsal (back of tongue)
  • Antero-dorsal (front of tongue)
  • Laminal (tongue blade)
  • Apical (apex or tongue tip)
  • Sub-laminal (underside of tongue)

Link 1: Conlang 101 Fun with Places of Articulation 

See also Consonant, specific places of articulation.

Postlingual Deafness See Deafness
Postures See Kinesics
Pragmatics The analysis of the use of language in the terms of the social context in which utterances are made, including the knowledge and beliefs of the speaker and the relationship between the speaker and the listener. For example, studying not so much of what is explicitly said, but how it was said (manner and style). It provides a deeper account of human language behavior.In regard to speech and language pathology, it is how to use language appropriately in social situations. For example Susie sees her teacher at the grocery store buying cookies and says, “Hi Mrs. White, Oh my mom says that cookies make you fat” Susie spoke clearly and used correct grammar, but from a social context she spoke inappropriately.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Pragmatics
Link 2: Pragmatics (language) – About Education.
Link 3: Social Language Use (Pragmatics) ASHA
Pragmatic Disorder Pragmatic Disorders affect the use of language in social situations.  Children with difficulty in this area of communication often have difficulty establishing and/or maintaining eye contact, understanding personal space, using language for different purposes (greeting, informing, demanding, promising, requesting), adapting language depending on the needs of the listener, initiating/maintaining conversations, staying on conversational topic and interpreting non verbal cues such as facial expressions.  Children with pragmatic disorders often have difficulty with vocabulary development and syntax as well.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Pragmatics Language Impairment
Link 2: Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder – PsychCentral.com
Link 3: Social Language Use (Pragmatics) ASHA
Precanonical Babbling See babbling
Prefix A free or bound morpheme that is placed before a root word to form a new word. For example Fireman or unfit.
Prelingual Deafness See Deafness
Prelinguistic Language See Language
Preoperational Stage See Cognitive Development
Prevocalic Voicing See Phonological Processes – Assimilation
Proprioception Perception See Perception
Protrusion Lisp See Lisp
Proxemics See Kinesics
Psychogenic Deafness See Deafness
Pure Word Deafness See Deafness, See Wernicke’s Aphasia

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