This is a Pediatric Speech and Language Dictionary / Glossary is a comprehensive list of speech and language terms that have helpful links to supporting content. It’s being developed as a reference source for pediatric speech and language pathologists and students. It’s will also be a great tool for parents of special needs kids who come across a term on the website that they do not completely understand or for the parent who wants to get totally involved in their child’s therapy.

This Pediatric Speech and Language Dictionary is a work in progress and always will be. We will continue adding to the reference list as we keep building our content with terms that need further explanation.

If you do not see the term you were looking for, please write the term in the comments below and we will add it within 24 hours.

Speech and Language Dictionary Terms A to Z

Kidmunicate_Speech_language_Dictionary / Glossary

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Term Definition
Affix A free or bound morpheme that is placed before (Prefix) or after (suffix) a root word to form a new word. For example fireman, unfit, manly, careless
Additions See articulation disorder
Affricates Afficates are consonant sounds that begin when air is stopped by the tongue pressing against back of the teeth to build up air pressure in the mouth. The sound produced when the air is finally forced through a slight opening betwen the tip of tongue and the teeth is an affricative.. English has two affricate sounds, the ch sound /t∫/ (examples; cheese, which) sound and j sound /d3/ (examples; joy, job, cage).

Link 1: Calleteach Sounds of English Affricates/
Link 2: Pronuncian.com Lessons – Lesson 45
Link 3: University of Iowa – Sounds of American English
Link 4: Wikipedia – Affricate Consonants
Agrammatism A form of expressive aphasia that is characterized by an inability to speak in grammatically correct way. Common errors in word sequence, syntax, tense, number and gender.

Link 1: The ASHA Leader – Agrammatism: A cross-linguistic clinical perspective
Link 2: Wikipedia – Agrammatism
Alvelolar Ridge The ridge just behind the upper front teeth. Also know as the Alveolar Margin.

Link 1: Britannica.com – Alveolar-Ridge Definition and Images
Link 2: Wikipedia – Alvelolar Ridge
American Sign Language A complete and complex language used by the deaf that utilizes gestures, facial expressions and body posture to express thoughts, questions, comments, etc.

Link 1: Wikipedia – American Sign Language
Link 2: ASLPro.com Easy to use reference and learning tool with video examples
Link 3: SignSaavy.com Learning tool with video examples
Link 4: American Sign Langauge – National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Anxiety Emotional disturbance prominently characterized by apprehension, worry or fear. In speech and language, especially in stuttering and other communication disorders, it is the fear and apprehension of speaking in public.
Aprosody The loss of the melody of speech (prosody). The melody of speech is controlled by modifications in pitch, quality and duration of individual speech sounds. Said differently prosody is the lack of rhythm, stress and intonation of speech. (Also hypoprosody)

Link 1: Wikipedia – Aprosody
Aphasia Aphasia is a communication disorder that results from dysfunction in the brain from a stroke, head injury, virus, infection, tumor or seizures. Aphasia can range from mild to severe. This disability is rare in children.

  • Anomic Aphasia -The inability to find the right words, especially words for objects or proper names, when one is communicating. Also called word-retrieval or word-finding problem.
  • Auditory Aphasia – (See Wernicke’s aphasia)
  • Isolation Aphasia – (See transortical aphasia)
  • Broca’s Aphasia – An expressive aphasia that is characterized by the inability to produce language both written and spoken caused by developmental issues or damage to Broca’s area of the brain. (See Broca’s Area – the area of the brain where the plan of speech is executed.)
    • Speaking is difficult to initiate.
    • Writing is difficult.
    • Intonation and stress of speech is affected.
    • Vocabulary is limited to words used often.
    • Language is disjointed with sentence structure and grammar.
    • People who were able to do sign language before the onset of aphasia, have difficulties with sign language after.
    • Comprehension is preserved.
  • Childhood Aphasia – (See Developmental Aphasia)
  • Developmental Aphasia – When normal language function is disturbed despite deafness, mental deficiency, motor disabilities being ruled out as possible causes.
  • Expressive – Receptive Aphasia – When both the production and comprehension of language are compromised by brain dysfunction.
  • Fluent aphasia (See Wernicke’s Aphasia)
  • Global aphasia – When the brain damage affects an extensive portion of the front and back regions of the left hemisphere. People with global aphasia will have great difficulty in understanding words and sentences, and forming words and sentences. Communication is typically restricted to a few words at a time.
  • Non fluent aphasia (See Broca’s Aphasia)
  • Receptive aphasia (See Wernicke’s Aphasia)
  • Sensory aphasia (See Wernicke’s Aphasia)
  • Transcortical Aphasia – Brain damage that spares the Wernicke region and leaves the person with the ability to recite what has been said and acquire new words, despite not comprehending what the words mean.
  • Verbal Aphasia (See Broca’s Aphasia)
  • Wernicke’s Aphasia
    • A receptive aphasia that is characterized by the inability to comprehend both spoken or written language due to damage of Wernicke’s area of the brain. (See Wernicke’s Area – the area of the brain where we formulate what we want to say.) People with Wernicke’s aphasia can speak with normal grammar, syntax, rate and intonation, but cannot express themselves meaningfully with language.
Link 1: Wikipedia – Expressive Aphasia
Link 2: Wikipedia – Receptive Aphasia
Apraxia Children with apraxia (Also Childhood Apraxia of Speech) find it difficult to produce the sounds that they want to make because they cannot correctly plan the movement of the muscles that control the articulators (lips, tongue, teeth, jaw and velum). In other words, the brain of a child with apraxia does not send the proper instructions to the muscles that adjust both the positioning of the jaw, lips and tongue and the speed and rhythm of speech.

Link 1: Full Details – Causes, Signs and Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prognosis, Products for SLPs and Success Stories
Link 2: Apraxia Kids Website
Link 3: Wikipedia – Apraxia
Articulators Articulators or Speech Organs produce the sounds needed for language. The articulators include the lips, teeth, tongue, alveolar ridge, hard palate, soft palate (velum), uvula and glottis.

Link 1: The Sounds of English – Articulators
Link 2: Wikipedia – Articulators
Articulation Disorder An Articulation Disorder is a problem with the production of speech sounds due to incorrect placement, timing, pressure, speed and/or coordination of articulators (lips, tongue, teeth, jaw, and velum). This issue can lead to:

  • Additions – the addition of a sound(s) that is not part of a word. For example Ath-a-lete for Athlete
  • Omissions – the deletion of a phoneme that is not replaced by another. For example saying at for Hat.
  • Distortions – a phoneme that does not sound quite right. For example Shlow down for Slow down.
  • Substitutions – when one sound is replaced with another sound. For example wabbit for Rabbit.
Link 1: Full Details – Causes, Signs and Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prognosis, Products for SLPs and Success Stories.
Link 2: Wikipedia – Articulation Disorders
Term Definition
Babbling Babbling is the stage in a child’s speech and language development when the infant is experimenting with uttering sounds, but not yet producing any intelligible words. Babbling follows cooing and has three stages.

  • Marginal Babbling (Precanonical) – a series of sounds without well formed syllables.
  • Reduplicated Babbling (Canonical) – a series of consonant-vowel syllables in which the consonant is the same. (babababa or gagagaga)
  • Non-replicated (Canonical) – a series of consonant-vowel and vowel-consonant-vowel syllables in which the consonants and the vowels are different from one syllable to another. (MeMaMa or GaDaDa)
Link 1: Kidmunicate Speech and Language Milestones
Link 2: VocalDevelopment.com Stages of Development – Recorded examples.
Link 3: Parental Attentiveness to Infant Babbling Speeds up Language Development. (University of Indiana and University of Iowa Study)
Link 4: Wikipedia – Babbling
Backing (See Phonological Processes)
Block The stop or pause when a stutterer is trying to talk which prevents smooth sound productions. There are two types.

  • Clonic – a block characterized by repetitions.
  • Tonic – a block characterized by prolongations and hesitations.
Link 1: The Suttering Foundation
Link 2: Suttering – Causes, Signs and Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prognosis, Products for SLPs and Success Stories
Link 3: Wikipedia – Stuttering
Breath Stream The stream of air from the lungs used to activate the vocal folds or cords and to make sounds.

Link 1: Breath Stream Dymanics by Martin Rothenberg
Broca’s Area The region of the brain that controls motor speech. It is located in the inferior frontal gyrus of the dominant cerebral hemisphere (usually the left hemisphere).

Link 1: Britannica.com – Definition and Images
Link 2: Wikipedia – Braca’s Area
Broca’s Aphasia See Aphasia
Term Definition
Circumlocution In stuttering, an attempt to avoid a word or phase that is problematic for the speaker to say by rephrasing the thought with a different and easier word or phrase to say.

Link 1: The Suttering Foundation
Link 2: Suttering – Causes, Signs and Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prognosis, Products for SLPs and Success Stories
Link 3: Wikipedia – Stuttering
Cluttering Like stuttering, cluttering is a fluency disorder. Cluttering is often confused for stuttering, but the disorders are not the same. (See Stuttering) Cluttering is characterized by a rapid or irregular speaking rate or excessive disfluencies (breaks) in the flow of speech making the speaker difficult to understand. Erratic rhythm, poor grammar and the use of unrelated words in a sentence are also indications of cluttering. To clarify the difference between the two disorders; a person who stutters typically knows what they want to say, but cannot seem to get the words out easily, while a person who clutters cannot organize the words in his or her mind efficiently to produce fluent speech. Additionally, stuttering is a speech disorder and cluttering is a language disorder. Both disorders are treated by a SLP (speech language pathologist).

Link 1: The Suttering (and cluttering) Foundation
Link 2: Cluttering  – Causes, Signs and Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prognosis, Products for SLPs and Success Stories
Link 3: Wikipedia – Cluttering
Link 3: The difference between cluttering and stuttering – cartoon.
Cognition The process of acquiring understanding or knowledge through thoughts, experiences and the senses. It includes perception, memory, judgement, evaluation, reasoning, problem solving, decision making and comprehension.Cognitive – Relating to congnition.

Link 1: 5 Ways to Maximize your Cognitive Potential – Scientific American
Link 2: Cognition – Psychology Today
Link 3: Wikipedia – Cognition
Cognitive Development The growth of a child’s cognitive skills including perception, memory, judgement, evaluation, reasoning, problem solving, decision making and comprehension.The Jean Piaget Stages of Cognitive Development.

  • Sensorimotor
    • Birth through 18-24 months.
    • Simple reflexes, habits and primary reactions.
    • Infants focus on their own body, what they see, what they are doing and the immediate environment.
    • Constantly experimenting learning through trial and error by shaking, throwing, touching and tasting.
    • No conceptual thinking.
  • Preoperational
    • 18 to 24 months through age 7
    • Children can think about things as symbols and images.
    • Children start to develop memory and imagination (make believe).
    • They start to understand the difference between past and future.
    • The ability to sort (by size, shape, etc) and classify (name and identify) – Seriation and classification.
    • Language is developed.
    • Intellectual behavior moves quickly from intuition to conceptual to pre logical.
  • Concrete Operational
    • Ages 7 to 12
    • Children demonstrate logical and concrete reasoning.
    • Thinking becomes less self-centered as they become more aware of external factors.
    • Children cannot think abstractly or hypothetically.
  • Formal Operational
    • 13 though adulthood
    • Logically use symbols and abstract concepts – algebra and science.
    • Children can formulate hypotheses and consider possibilities.

Jean Piaget believes that all cognitive development follows this sequence only, but admits that some children pass through the stages on different timetables.

Link 1: Stages of Cognitive Development Section of A Brief History or the Science of Learning – Johns Hopkins
Link 2: Wikipedia -Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Comprehension The understanding of speech that is heard or writing that is read. The capacity to understand.
Congenital A disease, deformity or deficiency existing at the time of birth or before birth. It may be a result of heredity or a pathologic condition that occurred after conception.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Congenital Disorder
Consonant A speech sound articulated by either stopping the outgoing breath stream or creating a small opening to create resistance against the breath stream. For example:

  • Abutting consonants – Two consonants of different sounds joined together. The first one stops a syllable and the other one releases the next syllable. For example the st in mystery.
  • Arresting consonants – The consonant that closes a syllable.
  • Aspirate consonants – A sound produced with the exhalation of a breath. For example the /p/ in pie.
  • Blend consonants – Two or more consonant sounds standing next to each other. For example the /tr/ in tree or the /str/ in street.
  • Cluster consonants – See blend.
  • Compound consonants – A two or more consonants working as a single consonant to release or arrest a syllable. For example the /st/ in start.
  • Double consonants – Abutting consonants of the same sound. For example /ss/ in blessing.
  • Flap consonants – Sound produced by the closure of the vocal tract that is too rapid to build up a lot of pressure. For example the /r/ in bury.
  • Fortis consonants – A plosive sound that is strongly articulated and aspirated. For example /t/ in time.
  • Lenis (or Lax) consonants – A weakly articulated and aspirated sound. For example /d/ in dock.
  • Nasal consonants – “The Nasils”  are consonants made with air restricted to the nose. For example /m/ in sum, /n/ in run and /ng/ in sung.
  • Releasing consonants – The consonant that releases a syllable.
  • Voiced consonants – A consonant produced with the vibration of the vocal cords. For example /b/ in boy.
  • Voiceless consonants – A phoneme produced without any vibration in the vocal cords. For example /f/ in fish.
Link 1: Consonants recorded – ABC FastPhonics
Link 2: Rachel’s English Videos – Production of consonants.
Link 3: Wikipedia – Consonants
Link 4: Wikipedia – IPA Pulmonic Consonant Chart with Audio
Cranial Nerves Twelve Nerves that emerge from the brainstem that provide sensory information to the brain and motor action for face, neck and head.

  • Olfactory Nerve  – Smell (Sensory)
  • Optic Nerve – Vision (Sensory)
  • Oculomotor Nerve – Eye movement and pupil constriction (motor)
  • Trochlear Nerve – Eye movement (motor)
  • Trigeminal Nerve  – Touch and pain from face and head (sensory) and chewing (motor)
  • Abducens Nerve – Eye movement (motor)
  • Facial Nerve – Taste (sensory), hearing (sensory) and facial expressions (motor)
  • Vesitbulocochlear or Acoustic Nerve – Hearing and balance (sensory)
  • Glosspharyngeal Nerve – taste from tongue, tonsils pharynx (sensory) and muscles for swallowing (motor)
  • Vagus Nerve – Automatic functions of the viscera (glands, digestion, heart rate) (sensory and motor)
  • Spinal Accessory Nerve – Controls head movements (motor)
  • Hypoglossal Nerve – Controls muscles of the tongue (motor).
Link 1: Youtube – Learn the 12 Cranial Nerves in 5 minutes
Link 2: Youtube – Cranial Nerve Song
Link 3: Wikipedia – Cranial Nerves
Term Definition
Deafness Loss of hearing

  • Adventitious – Loss of hearing due to an injury or disease after birth.
  • Catarrhal – Loss of hearing due to an inflammation of the mucous membrane of air passageways.
  • Conductive – Loss of hearing due to air pressure not reaching the cochlea through outer and middle ear.
  • Cortical (or central) – Loss of hearing due to the damage of the auditory nerve or in the cortex of the brain.
  • High Frequency – Loss of hearing of high frequency sounds.
  • Industrial (or occupational or noise induced) – Loss of hearing due to long term exposure to loud noise.
  • Low Tone – Loss of hearing of low frequency (low tone) sounds.
  • Postlingual – Loss of hearing after speech and language is developed.
  • Prelingual – Loss of hearing before speech and language is developed.
  • Psychogenic (or hysterical) – Perceived loss of hearing due to emotional distress to escape an uncomfortable situation.
  • Pure Word (Wernicke’s aphasia) – Varying degrees of loss of spoken word comprehension without any effect on speaking, reading or writing.
  • Sensorineural – Loss of hearing due to a pathological condition in the inner ear.
  • Tone – Inability to recognize the difference between two sounds of differing frequencies. (Not able to recognize that you or another singer is off key.)
  • Toxic – Loss of hearing due to a drug or overdose of a drug.
Link 1: The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Link 2: Wikipedia – Hearing Loss
Developmental – Behavioral Pediatrician A pediatrician with additional subspecialty training in developmental-behavioral pediatrics. The developmental-behavioral pediatrician can evaluate and treat or recommend a course of treatment with a specialist (occupational, physical, speech, etc.) children and adolescents with a wide range of developmental and behavioral issues including.

Link 1: The Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics
Link 2: What is a developmental-behavioral pediatrician – University of Washington.edu
Diadochokinesis
Diadonchokinetic Rate		 The ability to rapidly and repetitively move the articulators. (Adiadochokinesis is the inability to rapidly and repetitively move articulators.)The Diadochokinetic Rate is a test used by speech and language pathologists to diagnosis problems with motor control or speech planning.

Link 1: Heathline.com Diadochokinetice Rate
Link 2: Diadochokinetic Syllable Rate Worksheet – University of Washington
Diphthong See Vowel
Distortions See articulation disorder
Dysarthria Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder where the muscles that control the articulators become weak, move slowly or do not move at all typically due to neurological injury or disease. It can effect timing, speed, pitch, volume, rate, steadiness, range and tone of speech.

Link 1: ASHA – Dysarthria
Link 2: Wikipedia – Dysarthria
Dysfluency
(Also Disfluency)		 Speech with interruptions in the flow of speech sounds. For example speech with blocks like repetitions, prolongations and hesitations. Stuttering.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Dysfluency
Link 2: The Suttering (and cluttering) Foundation
Link 3: Suttering – Causes, Signs and Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prognosis, Products for SLPs and Success Stories
Link 4: Cluttering  – Causes, Signs and Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prognosis, Products for SLPs and Success Stories
Dysphagia Difficulty with swallowing.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Dysphagia
Link 2: What is dysphagia – National Institute for Deafness and Communication Disorders
Term Definition
Ellipsis In linguistics, an ellipsis refers to the omission of words from a clause, but the communication is understood anyway because of the context of the other words. Dad: Johnny, please take the trash out. Johnny: OK, I will. (omitting take the trash out).In cluttering, an ellipse is the omission of sounds, syllables and words when a person who clutters speaks.

Link 1: The Suttering (and cluttering) Foundation
Link 2: Cluttering  – Causes, Signs and Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prognosis, Products for SLPs and Success Stories
Link 3: Wikipedia – Ellipsis (linguistics)
Link 4: My English Pages – Ellipses with examples
Enunciate To articulate or pronounce clearly.
Epenthesis The insertion of an extra sound in a word. For example Ath-a-lete instead of athlete, filem instead of film or ac-a-me instead of acme. (My grandmother use to say ac-a-me for the Acme grocery store.)

Link 1: About Grammar – Epenthesis
Expressive Language Disorder Expressive language disorder is a communication disorder in which the child’s verbal and written expression is below expected developmental levels, but may have language comprehension that is normal.

  • Developmental Expressive Language Disorder is a communication disorder that the child is born with.
  • Acquired Expressive Language Disorder is a communication disorder caused by a brain injury or stroke.
Link 1: Wikipedia – Expressive Language Disorder
Link 2: National Library of Medicine – Expressive Language Disorder
Link 3: Healthline – Developmental Expressive Language Disorder
Term Definition
Facial Nerve See Cranial Nerve
Family Focused Approach Therapy that includes training the family to extend the therapy into the home between therapy sessions.
Final Consonant Deletion Final Consonant Deletion (eliminated by 3 or 3 ½) – Final consonant deletion is a term used when the child deletes final consonants. /hou/  instead of house. (See Phonological Disorder)
Fluency Oral language with sounds, syllables, words and phrases that flow together smoothly without hesitations or interruptions.

  • Basal – In stuttering, the length of time a stutterer can speak without stuttering.
  • False – Fluent speech of a stutterer achieved by tricks or devices like assuming the role of a character.
Link 1: The Suttering (and cluttering) Foundation
Link 2: Suttering – Causes, Signs and Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prognosis, Products for SLPs and Success Stories
Link 3: Cluttering  – Causes, Signs and Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prognosis, Products for SLPs and Success Stories
Fluency Disorder A communication disorder that is characterized by interruptions in the flow of oral language. Stuttering and Cluttering are fluency disorders. (See stuttering and cluttering for more details)
Fricatives Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel created by movement of articulators to create a friction sound. Fricatives are also called spirants. Some fricatives are voiced (vocal cords vibrate) like the /v/ in vine and some are voiceless (vocal cords do not vibrate) like the /f/ in fine.

  • Groove Fricative – a consonant formed by placing the tip of the tongue directly behind the front teeth with the blade of the tongue (the portion of the tongue just behind the tip) slightly grooved so that the breath stream can escape through the central channel. For example /s/, /z/
  • Slit Fricative – a consonant formed by forcing air through a narrow opening between the upper teeth and lower lip. For example /f/, /v/
Link 1: Wikipedia – Fricatives
Link 2: Furman College – Consonants: Fricatives – with examples of the 8 fricatives in the current English language.
Link 3: Youtube – Listen to English language fricatives.
Fronting Fronting is the term used when sounds that should be made at the back of the mouth, such as /g/ or /k/are substituted with a sound made in the front like /t/ or /d/. A child who is fronting might say “dee” instead of “key” or say “doh” instead of “go”. Typically eliminated by 3 or 3 ½ years. See Phonological Disorder.
Term Definition
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”. Typically eliminated by 5 years. (See Phonological Disorder)
Glottis The vocal folds (also called vocal cords) and the opening between them.

  • The vibration of the vocal folds are essential for voiced consonants and vowels.
  • When the vocal folds are separated, air can flow through without causing vibration to produce voiceless consonants.
Link 1: Wikepedia – Glottis
Grammar Principles or rules for speaking and writing clauses, phrases and words of a language.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Grammar
Link 2: Advance Heathcare Network – 10 Principles of Grammar Intervention for SLPs
Link 3: SpeechLanguage-resources.com Free Grammar Worksheets
Guttural Means of the throat. In speech, sounds produced in the throat that are low pitched, raspy or harsh.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Guttural
Groove Fricative See Fricative.
Term Definition
Habituation In audiology, becoming used to a sound / noise so much so that it is ignored.

Link 1: Wikepedia – Habituation
Haplology The omission of syllables in words due to an excessive speaking rate.

  • Probably becomes probly.
  • February becomes Febrary
  • Regularly becomes regurly
Link 1: Wikepedia – Haplology
Hard Palate Is the hard roof of the mouth in-between the arch of the teeth. In speech, the hard palate is essential for the development of several speech sounds including /ɟ/, /ʃ/, /3/, /j/.

Link 1: Wikepedia – Hard Palate
Hypoprosody  See Aprosody
Term Definition
Idioglossia A unique speech code invented by an individual or small group of individuals that differs from the normal native language of the speaker. The speaker may what he or she is saying, but the code is not understood by most listeners. Also the type of jargon used by twins to speak to each other while excluding others (twin speak).

Link 1: Wikipedia – Idioglossia
Intonation The pattern and variation of pitch and stress in the flow of speech. It is often used by the speaker to express an attitude or emotion and to signal the difference between a question and a statement.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Intonation (Lingusitics)
Intelligibility The clarity of utterances or the degree in which speech can be understood by the listener. Intelligibility can be influenced by the rate, prosody, articulation, vocal quality and intensity of speech.
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) The standardized representation of sounds developed by the International Phonetic Association. This IPA is phonetic (pronunciation of speech) in design not phonemic (the meaning or change of meaning).

  • There are 160 symbols on the chart. Each symbol represents a distinctive sound of all the world’s languages.
  • The English language uses 44 of the 160 symbols.
  • There are 12 vowels, 24 consonants and 8 diphthongs
Link 1: Wikipedia – International Phonetic Alpabet
Interrogative See question
Term Definition
Jargon There are three different definitions

  • Verbal expression of children between 9 and 18 months which contains syllables and inflections approximating meaningful connected speech. Some actual words might be uttered.
  • Speech with little to no exchange of actual information. Unintelligible speech.
  • Language that is specific to a profession or field of study.
Link 1: Wikipedia – Jargon
Jaw The opposable articulated bone structures in the mouth. The mandible (lower jaw) and maxilla (upper jaw) move for grasping, chewing and talking.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Jaw
Juncture The joint between two parts (syllables or words) in contextual speech to differentiate meaning. It’s how we differentiate between sounds in connected speech. For example I scream and Ice Cream.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Junction
Link 2: Examples of Junctures in connected speech – Univeristy of Velencia
Term Definition
Kaufman Praxis Test The Kaufman Praxis Test assists in the diagnosis and treatment of children with apraxia of speech. It is a test that we use and recommend at Kidmunciate.

Link 1: Kaufman Praxis Test Amazon
Link 2: Kaufman Praxis Treatment Kit – Amazon
Kinesics The study of body language including gestures, postures and facial expressions. (Non-verbal communication) Kinesics has the following subcategories.

  • Proxemics – Space between people when they communicate to each other. (Personal space)
  • Oculesics – Eye contact, eye movement, gaze.
  • Haptics – (or tactics) – Interaction involving touch. Handshake, high five, hug, etc.
  • Facial Expressions – Positions of the face that convey emotion. Frown for sadness, smile for happiness, etc.
  • Gestures – Movement of any part of the body to convey or emphasize an idea or emotion. Thumbs Up for good, V sign for peace, etc.
  • Postures – The position of the body conveys information about personality traits (confident, submissive, etc.), social standing and current emotional state.
  • Mirroring – The subconscious replication of another person’s nonverbal communication.
Link 1: Wikipedia – Kinesics
Link 2: Wikipedia – Nonverbal communication
Link 3: Youtube – Kinesics overview and demonstration. University to Colorado Students
Link 4: About Education – Understanding Body Language
Kinesiology In speech, the study of the muscle movements in sound production.

  • Kinesthesia – In speech, the awareness of the positions of the articulators to produce sound.
  • Kinesthetic analysis – In speech, the study of sound errors in relation to the movements of the articulators.
  • Kinesthetic cues – The use of the awareness of the positions or movements of the articulators to aid in correcting speech sound errors.
Term Definition
Labialization
  1. The rounding or pursing of the lips.
  2. See under phonological processes
Link 1: Wikipedia – Labialization
Lalling
  1. Babbling
  2. Articulation disorder associated with sounds produced by the elevation of the tip of the tongue. /l/, /r/, /t/ and /d/.
Lambdacism Lambdacism – Articulation issues of the /l/ sound (excessive use or unusual use of the /l/). The substitution of the /l/ sound for another sound or the substitution of the /l/ sound with another sound typically the /r/.
Language The structured and symbolic system for communication made up of sounds and the rules that form the sounds into words and words into sentences to express thoughts, intentions, experiences, questions, feelings, etc.

  • Automatic – 1) rReflexive sounds made in the first month of life, 2) Habitual use of words used so much that they are meaningless.
  • Body Language – see kinesics.
  • Delayed – The inability to comprehend or speak language at the expected developmental age.
  • Egocentric – An early stage in the development of language when a child’s verbalizations are regarding his/her own needs.
  • Emergent – The development process of acquiring language (comprehension and speech) during infancy and early childhood.
  • Expressive – Ability to communicate via spoken or written word.
  • Guestures – See kinesics
  • Non standard – Language that is notably different from accepted norms of a language.
  • Oral – Communication through the spoken word.
  • Prelinguistic – Verbalization that precedes the first spoken words. For example, crying, cooing and babbling.
  • Receptive – Comprehension of sounds, words and sentences.
  • Sign Language – A means of communication with gestures for the deaf.
Link 1: Wikipedia – Language
Language Disorder A language disorder is any difficulty with the expressive language (sharing ideas, thoughts or emotions) or receptive language (comprehension) ranging from a complete inability to express oneself or comprehend to minor variances in syntax.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Language Disorder
Link 2: National Institute of Health – Language Disorder
Linguist A person that studies the form / structure, meaning and context of language.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Famous Linguists
Linguistic The study of the form / structure, meaning and context of language.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Linguistics
Link 2: Linguistics 101 – IE Languages
Linguistic Components Components of Linguistics

  • Phonology
    • Meaningful combination of sounds.
  • Morphology
    • The formation of words.
  • Pragmatic
    • Social context use of language.
  • Semantic
    • Meanings of words, sentences.
  • Syntax
    • Construction of the different parts of speech in a sentence to convey meaning.
Link 1: Language and Its Components – University of West Florida PPT
Link 2: Linguistics 101 – IE Languages
Lipreading Also know as speechreading. Is a method of understanding speech by studying the movements of the lips, face and tongue while taking into account the context, knowledge of the language and any residual hearing.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Lipreading
Link 2: Lipreading.org Online lip reading training course and games.
Lip rounding The formation of a circle or semi-circle to produce certain vowel sounds. /u/, /U/, /o/, /ɔ/

Link 1: Wikipedia – Roundedness
Lips One of two soft and movable fleshy body parts at the opening of the mouth used in the articulation of sound and speech.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Lips
Lisp Imperfect production of one or more of the six sibilant consonants (/s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʒ/) which is typically caused by an improper placement of the tongue or abnormalities of the articulators.

  • Dental Lisp – Tongue placed against the upper or lower central incisors during (/s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/)
  • Frontal Lisp – substitution of /θ/ (as in thin), /ð/ (as in this) for a sibilant phoneme. (Examples; thorry for sorry or thoo for zoo). This is produced by obstructing air by placing the tip of the tongue too far forward against the teeth or the alveolar ridge.
  • Lateral Lisp – Improper production of sibilant sounds due to excessive release of air around the sides of the tongue which produces a sound similar to sh /ʃ/. (Example Shun for sun).
  • Lingual Lisp – See Frontal Lisp
  • Nasal Lisp – substitution of the a snorted /n/ for a sibilant when the air is deflected backwards and escapes through the nose.
  • Occluded Lisp – substitution of a /t/ or /d/ for a sibilant. (Example tilly for silly)
  • Protusion Lisp – See Frontal Lisp
  • Strident Lisp – when a whistling sound is produced with the /s/ or /z/.
Link 1: Wikipedia – Lisp
Link 2: Lisping – Encyclopedia of Children’s Health
Link 3: What is a lisp – SuperDuper productions PDF
Term Definition
Mainstreaming Moving a child with a learning or behavioral disability into a regular school environment with the support of special educators.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Mainstreaming (Education)
Link 2: Education.com – Least Restrictive environment, mainstreaming and inclusion.
Mastication Chewing food to prepare for swallowing.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Mastication
Mean Length Utterance (MLU) It is a way to quantify speech ability. It is calculated by dividing the number of morphemes (see morphemes) by the number of utterances. (see utterances). Higher MLU’s indicate higher proficiency with the language.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Mean Length Utterance
Link 2: Rules for calculating Mean Length of Utterance – Missouri State University
Link 3: Mean Length Utterance Levels in 6 month intervals – National Center of Biotechnology Information
Morphemes The smallest unit of meaningful language.

  • Free morpheme – a morpheme that can stand alone
    • Car
    • Jump
  • Bound morpheme – is a morpheme joined to a free morpheme which can indicate:
    • Plural / singular – example car(s),
    • Positive / negative – example (un)friendly
    • Tense – example Jump(ed), jump(ing)
    • Degree in adjectives – example hard(er)
    • Possessive – example Sara(‘s)
Link 1: Wikipedia – Morphemes
Link 2: Morphemes – Princeton University
Link 3: Morpheme – About Grammar
Term Definition
Nasality Voices that have an excessive nasal component to them.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Nasality
Link 2: How to Correct Nasality | Vocal Lessons – You Tube
Link 3: Nasal Resonance (Nasality) | Speech and Language Professionals – Rochester Institute of Technology. (Recorded examples)
Nasals See nasal consonants under consonants.
Neurophonia A spasm or tic of the muscles of phonation which cause an involuntary sound or cry.
Nonvocal Individuals who have not developed oral communication skills due to hearing impairment, intellectual disabilities, autism or severe physical handicaps.
Term Definition
Occluded Lisp See Lisp
Occupational Therapy Occupational therapy helps people with physical, sensory or cognitive disabilities be as independent as possible. An occupational therapist (OT) evaluates a child’s skills at play, at school and daily activities and compare them to what is developmentally appropriate for the age of the child. Then the OT will work with the child to improve the cognitive, physical, sensory or motor skills needed to perform activities for daily living. The OT will also address self-esteem, social and environmental issues. The OT often works very closely with speech language pathologists and physical therapists.

Link 1: Occupational Therapy vs Physical Therapy – Diffen.com
Off Glide Movement of the articulators away from their position of the previous speech sound. Movement from the /s/ to the /k/ of the /sk/ blend in Ski.
Omissions See articulation disorder
On Glide Movement of the articulators to get in position to make a speech sound. (The movement immediately preceding the sound)
Orofacial Relating to the month and face.
Orofacial Myofunctional Disorder Also called Tongue Thrust. Tongue thrust for swallowing is normal for infants, but as a child grows this decreases and disappears. Orofacial Myofunctional Disorder happens when tongue thrust continues past infancy resulting in a child that looks, talks and swallows differently from his/her peers.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Orofacial Myological Disorders
Link 2: ASHA – OMD
Link 3: International Association of Orofacial Myology – resources and support.
 Orolingual Relating to the month and tongue.
Term Definition
Palate The roof of the mouth which includes the hard palate and the soft palate (or velum).

Link 1: Wikipedia – Palate
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
Phonology The study of sound patterns focusing on the rules and organization of sound units in a spoken language.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Phonation
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 a 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 children typically make to simplify speech as they are learning to talk. Phonological disorders occur when these errors persist beyond the proper developmental age.

  • Substitution – When one sound replaces another.
    • Affliction – When a fricative (/f/, /h/, /s/, /sh/, /th/, /z/, /zh/) is replaced with an affricate (/ch/, /dz/). For example “door” would be “joor”. (Eliminated by 3yrs)
    • 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 3.5yrs)
    • Vowelization – When a syllabic consonant is replaced with a vowel usually /l/ and /er/. For example: “apple” becomes “appo” and “diaper” becomes “diapah”.
  • Assimilation – When sound changes make one sound start to sound like another.
    • Alveolar Assimilation – When a non-alveolar sound is changed to an alveolar sound (/d/, /l/, /n/, /s/, /t/ and /z/).
    • Labial Assimilation – When a non-labial sound is changed to a labial sound (/b/, /p/, /m/, and /w/) because there is another labial sound in the word. For example “top” becomes “bop’.
    • Nasal Assimilation – When a non-nasal sound is changed to a nasal sound (/m/, /n/ and /ng/) because there is another nasal sound in the word. For example “mop” becomes “mom’.
    • Prevocalic Voicing – When a voiceless sound that precedes a vowel is changed to a voiced sound. For example “pie” becomes “bie”.
    • Devoicing Final Consonant – When the final voiced consonant is replaced with a voiceless consonant. “sad” becomes “sat” and “big” becomes “bik”.
    • Velar Assimilation – When a non-velar sound is replaced with a velar sound (/k/, /g/ and /ng/). For example “pup” becomes “pug” and “jeep” becomes “jeek”
  • Syllable Structure – Simplification of the structure of syllables
    • Cluster Reduction – When a child reduces a consonant cluster to a single consonant. For example: Total “spoon” becomes “oon” and a partial spoon” becomes “poon”. 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 stridency of a consonant is deleted or substituted with a non-strident consonant. For example: “fish” becomes “pif”.
    • 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.
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
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
Prefix A free or bound morpheme that is placed before a root word to form a new word. For example Fireman or unfit.
Term Definition
Question A linguistic expression used to request information.

  • Interrogative Sentence is a sentence with a grammatical form that indicates that a question is being asked.
    • Wh questions – Questions that start with an interrogative word – who, what, which, where, when, whose, why and how. Example; Where are you going? Who are you with? When is the game.
    • Yes – No questions – An interrogative construction that requires a yes (affirmative) or no (negative) response. Example; Is that your car? Does the game start at 7pm?
    • Choice questions – (Alternative questions) Example; Do you want Pepsi or Coke?
    • Negative questions – Example; Aren’t you coming?
    • Tag questions – Example; My mother-in-law is leaving tonight, isn’t she?
    • Inversion question – when an auxiliary verb changes places with the subject to form a question or request for information. Example; Are you coming home?
    • Intonation question – a variation of spoken pitch that signals that the statement is actually a question. Example; She saw it on TV? with a rising intonation on ↗T and ↗V.
  • Rhetorical questions – are used to make a point not to get an response. Example; So, you weren’t paying attention after all?
  • Imperative – a grammatical mood that forms a commands or requests. Example; Tell me a story.
Link 1: Wikipedia – Questions
Term Definition
Rate Control  A technique used by a stutterer to speak more slowly to attempt to avoid a stuttering block.

Link 1: The Suttering Foundation
Link 2: Suttering – Causes, Signs and Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prognosis, Products for SLPs and Success Stories
Link 3: Wikipedia – Stuttering
Rate of Maturation The sequential development of skills from birth that occur within established time period norms.

Link 1: Speech Milestones
Link 2: Feeding Milestones
Link 3: Developmental Milestones – Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Receptive Language  See Language
Remediation The correction of something that is deficient or abnormal.
Rhythm The cadence, melody or flow of speech established by patterns of pitch, loudness, stress, duration and rate.
Term Definition
Semantics The study of the meaning of words, phrases, signs and symbols.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Semantics
Sentence The linguistic unit that contains two or more morphemes that express a complete thought.

  • Sentence Types
    • Declarative – a statement.
    • Exclamatory – a sentence uttered with emotion.
    • Imperative – a command.
    • Interrogative – asks a question or a request.
Link 1: Wikipedia – Sentence (Linguistics)
Link 2: The Kinds of Sentences and Their Punctuation – Towson University
Sibilant A fricative sound which is accompanied by a hissing sound that is produced by directing a stream of air with the tongue toward teeth held closely together /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/ (/tʃ/, /dʒ/ are affricates with a consonant sound beginning as a stop, but expelled as a fricative).

Link 1: Wikipedia – Sibilant
Sign Language See American Sign Language
Slide A method used by stutterers to control dysfluencies whereby the initial sound of a word is prolonged until they are able to move to the next sound.

Link 1: The Suttering Foundation
Link 2: Suttering – Causes, Signs and Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prognosis, Products for SLPs and Success Stories
Link 3: Wikipedia – Stuttering
Slit Fricative A consonant formed by forcing air though a narrow opening between the upper teeth and the lower lip. (/f/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/)
Speech Language Pathologist A licensed and certified individual who is qualified to diagnose and treat speech, language, voice and feeding disorders.

Link 1: What is a Speech Language Pathologist – SuperDuper Inc. 
Speech Language Pathology The study of speech, language and voice disorders to provide diagnoses and treatments.

Link 1: History of Speech – Language Pathology University of Buffalo Judy Dechan
Link 2: Wikipedia Speech Language Pathology
Link 3: American Speech and Hearing Association – Speech Language Pathology
Speechreading See lipreading
Stopping Stopping is when a fricative sound like /f/ or /s/ or affricate like /ch/ or /j/ is substituted with a stop consonant like /d/ or /p/. For example “dan” for “fan”. Typically eliminated by 3- 4 ½ years depending on the sound. (See Phonological Disorder)
Stuttering Stuttering is a fluency disorder. Stuttering is sometimes referred to as stammering or disfluent speech. In short, stuttering is any interruption in the flow of speech. It’s quite common for children between ages 2 and 5. In fact, about 5% of children will develop stuttering during their childhood. It’s part of the process of learning how to speak. For most children, stuttering issues get better on their own, however for some kids, less than 1%, stuttering will continue and perhaps get worse after age five. Stuttering is twice as common in boys than girls and 3 to 4 times more likely to persist into adulthood for boys. Stuttering should be treated because it can affect a child’s academics and social interactions. It often causes emotional problems such as anxiety, fear or avoidance which can limit the potential of a child.

Link 1: The Suttering Foundation
Link 2: Suttering – Causes, Signs and Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prognosis, Products for SLPs and Success Stories
Link 3: Wikipedia – Stuttering
Link 4: Essential Speech Skills for School-Age Children Who Stutter – Mark Allen Ph.D. ASHA Presentation
Substituions See articulation disorder
Suffix A bound morpheme that is placed after a root word to form a new word. For example manly, careless.
Syntax The rules that guide the construction of the different parts of speech in a sentence to convey meaning.

Link 1: Syntax – Literary Devices Definition and Examples
Link 2: Wikipedia – Syntax
Term Definition
Tachylalia Speaking at an excessive rate.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Tachylalia
Tachyphemia Rapid speech often with erratic rhythm and grammar mixed with some irrelevant words. See Cluttering

Link 1: The Suttering (and cluttering) Foundation
Link 2: Cluttering  – Causes, Signs and Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prognosis, Products for SLPs and Success Stories
Link 3: Wikipedia – Cluttering
Tense Tenses in grammar simply show the time of the action or state of being.

  • Simple Present – He walks.
  • Present Progressive – He is walking.
  • Simple Past – He walked.
  • Past Progressive – He was walking.
  • Present Perfect Simple – He has walked.
  • Present Perfect Progressive – He has been walking.
  • Past Perfect Simple – He had walked.
  • Past Perfect Progressive – He had been walking.
  • Future Simple (I) – He is going to walk.
  • Future Simple (II) – He will have walked.
  • Future Progressive (I) – He will be walking.
  • Future Progressive (II) – He will have been walking.
  • Conditional Simple (I) – He would walk.
  • Conditional Simple (II) – He would have walked.
  • Conditional Progressive (I) – He would be walking.
  • Conditional Progressive (II) – He would have been walking.
Link 1: English Grammar 4U online – Table of English Tenses
Link 2: Wikipedia – Grammatical Tense
Tetism A condition in articulation in which consonants are replaced with a /t/ sound especially the /f/.
Term Definition
Unstressed Vowel See Vowel
Upper bound The longest utterance of a language sample.
Utterance Phonetically an utterance is a natural unit of speech (words, phases, clauses or sentences) that begins and ends with silence (a pause or a breath). Utterances are measured to determine the linguistic productivity.

Link 1: Mean Length of Utterance
Link 2: Rules for calculating the Mean Length of Utterances – Missouri State University
Link 3: Wikipedia – Utterance
Uvula The cone shaped projection hanging from the middle of the soft palate. (Palatine Uvula – pertaining to the palate)

Link 1: Wikipedia – Palatine Uvula
Term Definition
Vagas Nerve See Cranial Nerves
Velum (Vela is the plural) The soft palate.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Palate
Virgules A slash. In speech, the slanted lines that surround the phonemic symbols. For example, (/f/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/)
Visual Hearing Comprehending of language through visual stimuli.

Link 1: Hearing what the eyes see – National Center for Biotechnology Information 
Vocal Relating to the human voice or speech.
Vocal Folds (or Cords) Twin infoldings of mucous membrane that is stretched horizontally across the larynx and controlled by the vagus nerve. These folds vibrate and modulate the flow of air from the lungs for speech and singing.

  • True vocal folds  -Vocal folds that vibrate to produce sound.
  • False vocal folds or Vestibular folds – A pair of thick folds of mucous membrane that protect the more delicate true folds. (They play a minor role in normal phonation, but can be used for deep tones.
Link 1: Wikipedia – Vocal Folds
Link 2: Vocal Folds in action YouTube
Link 3: Vocal Cord and Voice Box Anatomy – Video
Vowel Vowels are sounds that do not have any blockage or turbulence in the airflow like consonants do. While there may be 5 or 6 vowels in the alphabet (A,E,I,O,U and sometimes Y) there are actually 14 vowels in the English language. (/i/, /I/. /e/, /ɛ/, /æ/, /u/, /ʊ/, /o/, /ɔ/, /a/. /ɝ/, /ʌ/, /ɚ/ and /ə/).The International Phonetic Alphabet identifies seven different vowel heights:

  • Close Vowel – (High vowel) Vowel sound produced when the tongue is high in the mouth. For example:
    • /i/ (upper-high or close, front, tense) the i in machine
    • /I/ (lower-high or near close, front, lax) the i in big
    • /u/ (upper-high or close, back, tense, rounded) the oo in cool
    • /ʊ/ (lower-high or near close, back, lax, semi-rounded) the oo in good
  • Open Vowel – (Low vowel) Vowel sound produced when the tongue is low in the mouth. For example:
    • /æ/ (low or open, front) the a in trap
    • /a/ (low or open, back) the a in father
  • Mid Vowel – Vowel sound produced when the height of tongue at a mid position in the mouth. For example:
    • /e/ (upper-mid, front, tense) the a in pay
    • /ɛ/ (lower-mid front, lax) the e in bet
    • /ɝ/ (upper-mid central, rhotic / retroflex) the ur in nurse
    • /ʌ/ (mid, central/ lax) the u in pup
    • /ɚ/ (upper-mid, central, lax, rhotic / retroflex) the ur in fur
    • /ə/ (lower-mid, central, lax) the a in away
    • /o/ (upper-mid, back, tense, rounded) the o in go
    • /ɔ/ (lower-mid, back, tense, rounded) the a in call
  • Back Vowel – Vowel sound produced by the arching of the tongue in the back part of the mouth with the lips rounded on all but /a/. For example:
    • /u/ (upper-high or close, back, tense, rounded) the ue in blue
    • /ʊ/ (lower-high or near close, back, lax, rounded) the u in put
    • /o/ (upper-mid, back, tense, rounded) the o in toe
    • /ɔ/ (lower-mid, back, rounded) the o in cost
    • /a/ (low or open, back) the a in father
  • Front Vowel – Vowel sound produced by the arching of the tongue in the front part of the mouth with the lips spread. For example:
    • /i/ (high or close) the ee in see
    • /I/ (lower high or near close) the i in hit
    • /e/ (upper mid) the a in pay
    • /ɛ/ (lower mid) the e in bet
    • /æ/ (low or near open) the a in black
  • Central Vowel – Vowel sound produced by the arching of the tongue in the middle section of the mouth unrounded. For example:
    • /ɝ/ (upper-mid central, rhotic / retroflex) the ur in nurse
    • /ɚ/ (upper-mid, central, lax, rhotic / retroflex) the ir in bird
    • /ʌ/ (mid, central/ lax) the u in luck
    • /ə/ (lower-mid, central, lax) the a in pasta
  • Diphthong – (literally two voices or two sounds) a speech sound that glides continuously from one vowel to another vowel in the same syllable. A dipthong is sometimes called the gliding vowel. The tongue moves during the pronunciation of a diphthong. For example:
    • /aI/ (1st vowel is low, back, unrounded; 2nd vowel is lower-high, front, unrounded)
      • The /a/ is longer in duration, while the /I/ is shorter and unstressed.
      • pie – /PaI/
    • /aʊ/  (1st vowel is low, back, unrounded; 2nd vowel is lower-high, back, rounded)
      • The /a/ is longer in duration, while the /ʊ/ is shorter and unstressed.
      • Cow – /kaʊ/
    • /ɔI/ (1st vowel is lower-mid, back, rounded; 2nd vowel is lower-high, front, unrounded)
      • The /ɔ/ is longer in duration, while the /I/ is shorter and unstressed.
      • Oil – /ɔIl/
    • /Iə/  (1st vowel is lower-high, front, unrounded; 2nd vowel is lower-mid, central, unrounded)
      • The /I/ is longer in duration, while the /ə/ is shorter and unstressed.
      • Here – /hIə(r)/
    • /eə/ (1st vowel is  upper-mid, front, unrounded; 2nd vowel is lower-mid, central, unrounded)
      • The /e/ is longer in duration, while the /ə/ is shorter and unstressed.
      • Bear – /beə(r)/
    • /eI/ (1st vowel is  upper-mid, front, unrounded; 2nd vowel is lower-high, front, unrounded)
      • The /e/ is longer in duration, while the /I/ is shorter and unstressed.
      • Say – /SeI/
    • /ʊə/ (1st vowel is  lower-high, back, rounded; 2nd vowel is lower-mid, central, unrounded)
      • The /ʊ/ is longer in duration, while the /ə/ is shorter and unstressed.
      • Sure – /sjʊə(r)
    • /əʊ/ (1st vowel is lower-mid, central, unrounded; 2nd vowel is lower-high, back, rounded)
      • The /e/ is longer in duration, while the /ʊ/ is shorter and unstressed
      • Probe – /prəʊb/
  • Triphthong – A group of three vowel sounds articulated together in one effort. For example our
  • Lax Vowel –  Vowel sound produced without muscle tension. Examples above.
  • Tense Vowel – Vowel sound produced with muscle tension. Examples above.
  • Rounded Vowel – Vowel sound produced with rounded lips. Examples above.
  • Unrounded Vowel – Vowel sound produced without rounded lips. Examples above.
  • Retroflex Vowel – Vowel sound produced with a curling of the tongue. Examples above.
  • Rhotic Vowel – (also r-colored, vocalic r or rhotacized) Vowel sound that has an /r/ like sound. Examples above.
Link 1: The sounds of the English and International Phonetic Alphabet – Antimony
Link 2: Wikipedia – Diphthong
Link 3: Wikipedia – Vowels
Link 4: Wikipedia – English-Phonology
Term Definition
Weak Syllable Deletion The deletion of a syllable from a word. For example nana for banana.
Whisper A whisper is an unvoiced sound during exhalation of air in which the vocal cords do not vibrate. Adductive tension is low. medial compression and longitudinal tension is high.

Link 1: Types of phonation – University of Stuttgart
Link 2: Wikipedia – Whispering
Wh question See question
Word The smallest element in linguistics made up of one or more phonemes and one or more syllables that has literal or practical meaning.

Link 1: Wikipedia – word
Link 2: Vocal Folds in action YouTube
Link 3: Vocal Cord and Voice Box Anatomy – Video
Word-finding or Word-Retrieval Problem The inability to find the right words, especially words for objects or proper names, when one is communicating. Also called Amonic aphasia.

Link 1: Wikipedia – Anomic Aphasia
Link 2: Wordfinding.com – a comprehensive site dedicated to the problem of word-retrieval.
Term Definition
 X-ray  X radiation is a form a electromagnetic radiation. It is used as a diagnostic tool in medicine.

Link 1: Wikipedia – X-Ray
Term Definition
Yes or no Question  See question
Yawn-sigh A technique used in voice therapy to remedy vocal hyperfunction. The yawn expands the pharynx and to stretches the laryngeal muscles to encourage greater airflow. The sigh with phonation that follows is relaxed. Once this technique is mastered with a phoneme, then the yawn-sigh technique is used with words and sentences.

Link 1: Yawn-sign Baillement.com
Link 2: Yawn-sigh Technique – YouTube
Link 3: Yawn-sign Hani-Shaker.com
Term Definition
Zero morpheme Also Null Morpheme. Is represented by a ø or an affix that does not change the pronunciation but changes the meaning. For example a word that is both singular and plural, like deer.

Link 1: Null Morpheme or Zero Morpheme | Language and Linguistics
Link 2: Wikipedia Null Morpheme