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Term Definition
Canonical Babbling See babbling
Catarrhal Deafness See Deafness
Central Deafness See Deafness
Childhood Aphasia See Aphasia
Chorditis Inflammation of the vocal cords (vocal folds) usually caused by vocal abuse and misuse.
Chorditis Nodosa or Tuberosa See vocal nodules
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
Cluster Consonants See Consonants
Cluster Reduction See Phonological Processes – Syllable Structure
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
Compound Consonants See Consonants
Comprehension The understanding of speech that is heard or writing that is read. The capacity to understand.
Concrete Operational Stage See Cognitive Development
Conductive Deafness See Deafness
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
Contact Ulcer A condition that occurs from vocal abuse or misuse when an ulcer forms on the posterior vocal cord (vocal process) where the vocal ligament attaches. This is commonly happens to singers.
Contact Granuloma See Contact Ulcer
Cortical Deafness See Deafness
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

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