Welcome to EAUFSD Speech and Language Department!

We Speak

How do speech language pathologists assist students in schools?

  • Speech Production 

    • Articulation - therapists work to improve sounds and/or decrease the use of phonological processes that impact the intelligibility of speech

    • Oral Motor Skills - therapists target the awareness, mobility, strength and coordination of the articulators (tongue, jaw, cheeks etc.)

  • Language

    • Therapists will work to improve a students understanding and use of language, grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary, linguistic concepts ( spatial/location, temporal/time, quantity/number and quality/describing) and conversational skills

    • Pragmatic Language - Therapists will teach students to use and understand body language ( e.g. gestures, facial expressions, eye contact), taking turns in conversation and  use of appropriate volume, speed, intonation and body distance.

  • Auditory Processing

    • Central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) occurs when a child can't understand what they hear in the same way other children do. The child’s ears and brain have difficulty communicating. A child’s brain has difficulty recognizing and interpreting sounds, especially speech.

    • If your child has difficulties with Auditory Processing it is recommended that an audiologist complete an Auditory Processing Evaluation in order to determine if the disorder exists.

    • Therapy for a child with CAPD may involve all or some of the following:

      • Direct skills remediation (e.g. auditory discrimination, auditory pattern recognition, sound localization and lateralization etc.)

      • Compensatory strategies (e.g. use of graphic organizers, phonological awareness, use of context to understand and build vocabulary, active listening strategies etc.)

      • Environmental modifications (changing the learning or communication environment).

  • Phonological Awareness

    • Therapists will work to build a child’s ability to understand and manipulate sounds and syllables in words. Phonological awareness is an essential skill involved in learning to read.

    • Tasks to improve phonological awareness may include segmenting words into syllables, identifying rhyming words, blending sounds etc.

  • Fluency

    • Fluency means the smoothness with which sounds, syllables, words and phrases are joined together during connected speech.

    • If a child has difficulty with fluency this may present as stuttering.

  • Voice

    • If a child is suspected of having a voice disorder, a therapist will likely work on addressing the child’s vocal quality, pitch and volume.