Children can have difficulties with communicating due to disorders in speech and/or language skills, as well as the ability to communicate appropriately in social situations.
Speech
includes how we say certain sounds and words utilising our breathing, voice, and coordinating this with movements of the mouth structures (jaw, lips, cheek, tongue and palate).
Language
refers to our understanding and use of words for a variety of communicative functions. Receptive language refers to our ability to understand what is being said and that words have meaning. Expressive language refers to our ability to express our thoughts, needs and feelings which could be through a variety of modalities: speech, gestures, pictures and written language.
Social communication (pragmatics)
are essentially rules for how we utilise language across different situations and with different people for a variety of reasons. Some children have difficulties with following these rules, such as greeting and initiating conversation; taking turns in conversation; staying on topic; and utilising non-verbal cues such as facial expressions.
Young children also need to acquire pre-linguistic skills in order to further develop speech and language. This refers to: joint attention, eye contact, turn taking, imitation of sounds and actions, cause-effect, object permanence and the intent to communicate
We offer speech and language assessments for children with (but not limited to):
Speech production and pronunciation difficulties / delay
Language delays and disorders
Auditory processing difficulties
Childhood apraxia of speech
Autism spectrum disorders
Neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy
Syndromes where speech and/or language may be affected such as down syndrome
Anatomical abnormalities such as cleft lip and/or palate