Mr. Aguglia
K-8 Speech Language Pathologist
We talk to little babies, and pretty soon, they start talking back to us. In fact, most children seem to learn to speak without much effort. Once in a while though, you might begin to wonder if a child is talking as well as he should be for his age.
If family and friends seem to have trouble understanding your child, then contacting a Speech Pathologist is a good next step. By the way, we've been called Speech Pathologists, Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs), Speech Therapists, Speech Clinicians, or Communication Disorders Specialists, depending upon custom at the time. The names don't reflect any difference in our training or in our national certification from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).
At Westminster Community Charter School, we try to help the children whose speech or language interferes with their ability to function in a school environment. If a child doesn't communicate as well as he should, the problem might be the production of the sounds or in the structure of his language - and these can be affected by a variety of factors
- Articulation -- Speech, the way words are said, might be affected by
- Sound errors with no obvious cause, such as a Lisp, or distorting L or R, that make it difficult to understand the child.
- Physical problems such as Cleft Palate, Hearing Loss
- Stuttering or "stammering" that frustrate the child
- Language -- The content and structure of our communication
- Vocabulary, knowing and using the names of things
- Sentence form, grammar - "Her run", "Why you not do that?"
- Reading is sometimes affected!
- Not surprising when you think about it - Successful Reading skills depend first on developing Speech and Language skills. Children need to understand that sentences are made of words, and that words are made of sounds before they can be successful manipulating letters to read and spell.