Speech-Language Development Blog

The Speech-Language Development Blog is your guide to what's new on my web site. When you come back to the site, check here first to learn about additions and changes.

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Causes of Hearing Loss

Causes of hearing loss in children and adults are divided into two broad categories: congenital and acquired.

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Unilateral hearing loss in children

Children with unilateral hearing loss are at risk for speech and language delays and difficulty in school, even though they "can hear just fine" with the unaffected ear.

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Cerumen: the wonderful world of ear wax

Cerumen, or ear wax, may just about be nature's most under-rated and misunderstood gift to humanity.

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Hearing Loss in Children: a risk factor for speech and language

Hearing loss in children is a frequent contributing factor to speech and language impairment. Find out how to tell if your child has a hearing loss and what to do about it.

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Phonetic Spelling

Phonetic spelling refers to the ability to identify sounds associated with individual letters or letter combinations. Learn how to foster this crucial stage of your child's development of literacy.

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Phonetic Reading and Development of Literacy

Phonetic reading refers to a child's ability to "sound out" and pronounce unfamiliar words and nonsense words based on spelling.

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Letter-Sound Correspondence and Phonemic Awareness

Letter-sound correspondence refers to the identification of sounds associated with individual letters and letter combinations.

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Phoneme Blending

Phoneme blending refers to the ability to identify a word when hearing parts of the word in isolation. This is important for the development of literacy, as well as general language development.

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Phoneme Substitution

Phoneme substitution refers to the ability to replace a phoneme in a word with another phoneme to form a new word. This is a very important step in the development of literacy, as well as general lan

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Phoneme Deletion

Phoneme Deletion is the ability to identify how a word would sound if one sound were omitted. This is a very important step in the development of literacy, as well as general language development.

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Phoneme Isolation

Phoneme isolation is the ability to identify where a sound appears in a word, or what sound appears in a given position. It is important for literacy, as well as for general language development.

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Syllable and phoneme segmentation

Syllable and phoneme segmentation refers to the ability to identify the components of a word, phrase, or sentence.

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Speech Evaluation and Screening

Before a school may conduct a speech evaluation, a parent or guardian must provide written permission. However, many schools provide a speech screening for new students, including kindergarteners.

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Alliteration and rhyme

Awareness of rhyme and alliteration is a basic skill for phoneme sequencing.

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Pre-phonemic listening skills

Before they begin to speak, children demonstrate pre-phonemic listening skills, including the ability to identify a variety of non-speech environmental sounds.

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Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and mentally manipulate the sounds (phonemes), sound sequences, and sound structures in a syllable or word.

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SpeechWays home speech therapy program by Leah Moryosef

SpeechWays is a home-based program for the development of speech and language in young children. A speech-language pathologist developed it as a way of helping parents work effectively with th

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Speech Class Rules, by Ronda Wojcicki

Speech Class Rules, an illustrated children's book by Ronda M. Wojcicki with illustrations by Loel Barr, aims to demystify the speech therapy experience for children of elementary school age.

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TV and ADHD

Is there a connection between TV and ADHD? It probably depends on how you define 'connection'.

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Aphasia Tutor

Aphasia Tutor software was designed for use with older adults who have lost language function as a result of a stroke or dementia, but I have used it with children as young as third grade.

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