speech

Phonological Activation During Visual Word Recognition in Deaf and Hearing Children

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A recent study found deaf children do not use phonological information during word reading. For more information on this topic and full abstract look at: http://jslhr.asha.org/cgi/content/abstract/53/4/801 Ormel, Ellen., Hermans, Daan., Knoors, Harry., Hendriks, Angelique., Verhoeven, Ludo. (2010). Phonological Activation During Visual Word Recognition in Deaf and Hearing Children. J Speech Lang Hear Res, 53: 801-820.

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Cerebral Palsy 101

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Cerebral Palsy is a condition that has a major impact on an individual’s life. It not only causes limited body movements and muscular incoordination, but also causes impaired speech. Speech is not affected because of an inability to learn, or acquire language, but because the muscles involved in speech are severely impacted. By strengthening muscles and working on developing muscular coordination, verbal communication can be possible. What is Cerebral Palsy? Cerebral Palsy is a cluster of conditions that affect body movement and muscle coordination. This condition is usually caused by damage of the brain during fetal development or early infancy. Children with this difficulty will not be able to use the muscles in the body in the same way as normally developing children. Some will face difficult challenges when walking, talking, eating, and even playing. Cerebral Palsy or CP, is not a disease or illness that is contagious, is a difference in development. They are unable to control muscular movements and coordinate body movements correctly. Children with CP will have it throughout their lives; unfortunately, there is no known cure. But through intervention and therapy, they may be apt to live fruitful lives. What Causes Cerebral Palsy? Cerebral Palsy is…

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Apraxia 101

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The Apraxia Guide: What Every Parent Should Know About Childhood Apraxia Apraxia is a motor disorder. The child is unable to transfer a speech messages from the brain to the mouth. This disorder can cause a child to be a “late talker” because of his/her inability to coordinate jaw, lip, and tongue movements.  In cases of Apraxia, the child’s speech intelligibility is unrelated to his/her language capacity; in other words, the child most likely understands more than what he/she can actually say. Apraxia is very different from a typical articulation disorder and so is the treatment approach to it. What is Apraxia? Apraxia is defined as a decreased ability to coordinate and initiate an imitated motor movement with the use of a body part. Apraxia can occur in the mouth and face, in the arms and legs, and more importantly in the speech muscles including those that are involved in respiration. A child with Apraxia will be able to produce involuntary or reflexive movements in a natural setting, such as waving goodbye, kissing your mother and using sporadic words; however when asked to imitate such movements or word the child will not be able to do so. The difficulty arises…

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Phonology 101

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Let’s Take Articulation to the Next Level: Phonology Phonology is the term used to describe how the act of articulation is neurologically organized and just like any other brain function is an extremely rule governed human behavior. Phonology, like articulation, is performed at the unconscious level and is too a highly complex process. It involves learning sounds through imitation, learning rules about how sounds are organized in words, and learning how sounds are affected when combined with other sounds. Here are some examples of how phonological rules affect sound production at the word level and at the sentence level: word level There are sounds in the English language that affect word meaning, represented for the most part as letters in the alphabet, like a /t/. Depending on where in the word /t/ is placed, it will be produced differently, therefore creating multiple versions of the same sound /t/ in the English language. In the initial position of words, /t/ has an extra air release called aspiration, “time” In the medial position of words, /t/ sounds like a “d” “letter” In the final position of words, /t/ is in its original form. “combat” sentence level The following are two sentences that…

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All About the ABC’s…

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A, B, C, D, E, F, G…the alphabet song is usually the method used to teach children their alphabet. Although the alphabet song does help, it usually causes children to memorize the melody of the song rather than the actual letter. Especially in the L, M, N, O, P part, it sounds more like “elemeno-pee” than the pronunciation of the letters! After a little research, and using my own creativity, I found a few ways that may help you teach your child the alphabet rather than using the traditional ABC song. The alphabet is the foundation of many important skills that your child will develop in the future; without it reading and writing will not be possible. Knowing the letters is essential, but more important than that, is knowing the sounds of the letters. Reading is usually taught by sounding out the letters and making a word out of the sounds. If a child cannot match the letter A with its corresponding “aaah” sound, then reading is going to be a difficult task. It is important to begin preparing your child for reading at an early age, and exposing him/her to educational resources, it will help them in the long…

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