Scope of Practice
Language
Receptive language refers to the ability to understand and comprehend language, while expressive language refers to the ability to use language to express thoughts and ideas. Therapy may target both language comprehension and expression for effective communication.
Voice
Voice refers to the sound produced by the vocal folds and how it is perceived by others. Therapy may target voice disorders affecting the quality, pitch, and loudness of one's voice, making it difficult to communicate effectively.
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
AAC refers to all forms of communication other than verbal speech. Therapy may target the use of multimodal communication with either unaided or aided AAC to foster autonomous communication for individuals who are nonspeaking, minimally speaking, or have unintelligible speech.
Articulation
Articulation refers to the ability to produce clear and accurate speech sounds. Therapy may target specific sounds or patterns of sounds that an individual has difficulty producing due to physical or structural differences, developmental delays, hearing loss, or neurological conditions.
Fluency
Fluency refers to the smoothness, flow, and ease of speech production. Therapy may involve implementing stuttering modification or fluency shaping strategies to target stuttering, cluttering, and other disruptions in speech flow.
Feeding and Swallowing
Feeding and swallowing skills allow individuals to maintain adequate nutrition and hydration. Therapy may target sensory awareness, coordination, range of motion, and/or strength to improve eating, drinking, and swallowing.
Pragmatics
Pragmatics refers to the social use of language. Therapy may target individuals developing the skills needed to navigate social interactions with greater ease and confidence in order to create and maintain meaningful relationships.
Cognition
Cognition refers to the mental processes essential for effective communication. Therapy may target the following cognitive-linguistic skills: attention, memory, and problem solving.