Laura LeBlanc

Predicting First Words in Infants

Laura LeBlanc MA, CCC/SLPLeave a comment

According to new research from Indiana University, children’s visual experiences could influence their first words.   The research team, led by Linda Smith (a professor in IU Bloomington’s Dept. of Psychological and Brain Science) found that infants may link objects they most frequently see with words they most often hear.  This new theory of language has been coined “pervasiveness hypothesis”.  Smith went on to add that “visual memory may be the initial key to getting words stuck on objects-familiar objects like table, shirt, bottle, or spoon. It’s an aggregated experience, those very first words may be learned-slowly and incrementally-for a few visually pervasive objects. This may be how infants break into language before their first birthday.”

The results of the study may help inform future interventions for children with language disorders; difficulty learning words could be caused by visual-processing problems.  For more information on this topic, see the March 2017 issue of The ASHA Leader.

If you are concerned about your child’s speech and or language development or skills, be sure to contact an ASHA certified SLP for an evaluation.  A list of providers can be found at http://www.ASHA.org

Could Your Child’s Phonological Disorder Really Be Apraxia of Speech?

Laura LeBlanc MA, CCC/SLPLeave a comment

According to Edith Strand, the leading expert in child apraxia, “childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) typically occurs alongside other language delays or phonological impairments.  This can make diagnosing it a major challenge.”

Characteristics that are often present, but not discriminative, in childhood apraxia include:

  • Limited consonant and vowel repertoire
  • Use of simple syllable shapes and frequent omission of sounds
  • Numerous errors-poor standard scores on articulation tests
  • Poor intelligibility

More “discriminative” characteristics of apraxia of speech include:

  • Difficulty moving from one articulatory movement to another  (ie saying the word “pancake” at a fast rate)
  • Groping and/or trial and error behavior
  • Vowel distortions
  • Prosodic errors (putting stress on the wrong syllable)
  • Inconsistent voicing errors (“teck” for “deck” or “van” for “fan”)

Distinguishing CAS from Phonological Impairment

The primary characteristics of  childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) are vowel distortions, segmentation and/or equal stress, awkward movement transitions and error behavior in words and phrases. On the other hand, children with only phonological impairment may make substitution errors of exhibit phonological processes that are fairly consistent.  The movements for those incorrect sounds will be accurate though, and rate and prosody are typically good.  For more information on this topic, see the March 2017 issue of The ASHA Leader “Appraising Apraxia”.

If you are concerned about your child’s speech or language be sure to contact an ASHA certified speech-language pathologist for an evaluation.   A list of providers can be found at http://www.ASHA.org