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Speech Therapy

Also known as: speech-language therapy, SLP.

What is Speech and Language Therapy?

Speech therapy is a specialized intervention aimed at addressing various speech disorders, as well as improving a child's ability to understand and express language. This therapy, particularly beneficial for those experiencing difficulties in speech and language, is conducted by a trained medical professional known as a speech-language pathologist.

What does a Speech Pathologist do?

Speech-language pathologists work to prevent, assess, diagnose, and treat speech, language, social communication, cognitive-communication, and swallowing disorders. 

What happens during the SLP treatment?

Speech-language therapy encompasses the following areas:

  • Articulation — Helps with errors in producing individual speech sounds, such as distortions and substitutions.
  • Fluency — Addresses difficulties in speaking smoothly. This includes:
    • Stuttering: Repeating whole words or parts of words, or pausing awkwardly between words.
    • Cluttering: Speaking quickly and merging words together, saying "uh" frequently.
  • Voice — Focuses on issues with voice quality, pitch, and loudness that are inappropriate for an individual’s age, gender, cultural background, or location.
  • Receptive/Expressive Language —
    • Receptive Language: Difficulty understanding spoken or written language.
    • Expressive Language: Difficulty sharing thoughts, ideas, and feelings orally or in writing.
  • Play — Helps children develop skills in problem-solving, turn-taking, and symbolic thinking, which are essential for language development.
  • Oral-Motor — Exercises involving the lips, tongue, teeth, and jaw to identify and address oral motor weaknesses.

A formal assessment is conducted to determine the areas of deficit and goal plans are created.

Is any special preparation needed?

A prescription from a medical provider (i.e., your pediatrician or a sub-specialist) is required to initiate scheduling the evaluation.

What are the risk factors?

There are no risk factors related to speech therapy.

Reviewed by: Jamie Tarshis

This page was last updated on: 9/16/2025 12:48:56 PM

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Voice Disorders Voice disorders are a broad category of medical conditions congenital and acquired; acute or chronic that affect the loudness, pitch, quality or resonance of a child's voice.
Speech Disorders Any abnormality of a child’s ability to speak clearly and normally can be classified as a speech disorder.
Phonological Process Disorders A phonological process disorder is a form of speech disorder in which there is difficulty organizing the patterns of sounds in the brain which results in an inability to correctly form the sounds of words.
Goldenhar Syndrome Goldenhar syndrome is a disorder that is present at birth. It usually manifests as congenital anomalies of the eye, ears, as well as spine.
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Communication systems, strategies and tools that replace or supplement natural speech are known as augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).
Tracking Rehabilitative Advancement through Accountable Care (TRAAC) TRAAC (Tracking Rehabilitative Advancement through Accountable Care) is the service delivery model of care for rehabilitation at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.