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COMMUNICATION

DISORDERS

SPEECH DISORDERS

A speech sound disorder occurs when a person is unable to produce speech sounds correctly. Speech sounds are the physical productions of sounds necessary for speech, such as "s" or "th". Fluency disorders (stuttering or stammering) are also considered a type of speech sound disorder. A person with a speech sound disorder may:

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  • not say sounds clearly

  • repeat sounds or pause when speaking

  • be difficult to understand

If your child does not have these speech sounds by the corresponding ages, then a speech disorder may exist.

Phoneme Acquisition Chart.gif
Speech Disorders

LANGUAGE DISORDERS

A language disorder is a broad term that covers a wide array of skills all centralized on the ability to successfully communicate or understand communication. There are two types of language disorders: receptive, which is what the individual understands and expressive, which is what the individual can communicate. A person with a language disorder may have:

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  •  difficulty understanding words, their meanings, and how they relate to one another

  • difficulty finding the right word to express thoughts or ideas

  • difficulty understanding long, complex sentences

  • difficulty executing multi-step directions

  • difficulty understanding that grammatical markers have meaning, such as marking past tense with an "-ed" (e.g. "jumped") or putting an "-s" on the end of a word to make it plural (e.g. "books")

  • difficulty maintaining conversations

Typical language development of a toddler

12- 18 months

   -   first words. Your child starts to intentionally label items. At 12 months they use        2-6 words other than "mama" and "dada".

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18 - 24 months

   -   50 words. Your child uses a variety of words, mostly nouns. At this age, your        child understands many more words that she/he can say. Children typically          understand 150 - 300 words. 

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24 - 30 months

   -   200 - 300 words. Your child learns many new words, including animals,            body parts and simple verbs. She/he begins to put simple words together. 

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30 - 36 months

   -   450 words, including positional words as "on" or "in", different colours and          ask "what's that?". Your child will also start using early pronouns (I, me, you).

 

36+ months

   -   1000 words. You child should advance quickly and gain loads of expressive         vocabulary during this year, mainly in three word sentences. 

Language Disorders

PROCESSING DISORDERS

Processing disorders can be reflected in a number of ways, but most commonly arise as a phonological processing disorder or central auditory processing disorder.

 

Phonological processing disorders occur when an individual has difficulty perceiving and mentally manipulating speech sounds. They can present similarly to speech sound disorders.

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A central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) occurs when an individual has difficulty with the perceptual processing of auditory information in the absence of a hearing loss. A person with CAPD may:

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  • have difficulty localizing sounds

  • have difficulty understanding spoken language when presented in a noisy background

  • frequently request repetitions by saying, "huh" or "what"

  • take longer to orally respond

  • have difficulty paying attention

  • inconsistently or inappropriately respond to questions

Processing Disorders

ACCENT REDUCTION

Accent reduction or accent neutralization is a systemic approach designed to help those who speak English as a second language communicate more articulately and efficiently. This is accomplished by teaching the correct recognition and production of the speech sounds necessary for English, as well as instructing the speaker on how to use correct intonation patterns, stress, and rhythm in conversational speech. Accent Reduction should aid one in speaking more clearly, freely, and directly. 

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Accent reduction may benefit business professionals in the following ways:

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  • Increase productivity

  • remove communication barriers and miscommunications

  • increase potential for professional advancement

  • facilitate effective teamwork

  • create inclusive environments

  • improve employee-customer relations

  • reduce client frustration due to communication inaccuracies

  • expand business negotiations and opportunities

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Accent Reduction

Contact us

Gigandet Speech & Language

Feldeggstrasse 23

8008 Zürich

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Tel: + 41 76 747 88 91

info@speechtherapy.ch

Thank you for your message. We will get in touch as soon as possible.

TESTIMONIALS

"Jessica was very effective in helping our son Victor make progress with his language development. Victor was raised in a three-language environment, and at 28 months he had a simple vocabulary (mainly in English), but was not making eye contact, and was not using language to communicate.  In less than a year..." more

Mihai Stroe, Father of Victor

"My son Zach started with speech therapy when he was just 18 months and we moved to Switzerland when he was 7 years old.  The school had given me pages of referrals to read through and to contact.  Moving to another country was really hard, but we were so thankful to have come across Jessica's name.  Jessica is so professional, organized and wonderful..." more

"My son Zach started with speech therapy when he was just 18 months and we moved to Switzerland when he was 7 years old.  The school had given me pages of referrals to read through and to contact.  Moving to another country was really hard, but we were so thankful to have come across Jessica's name.  Jessica is so professional, organized and wonderful..." more

Debbie Chermak, Mother of Zach

"Given that clear communication is crucial in my job, my strong lisp had been hurting my work performance. After a few months with Jessica, the lisp was entirely gone. I should have done this years ago!"

Marcin B, Google Zurich

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