speechBITE Glossary

Speech Pathology Practice Area

Speech

This is a broad category that encompasses the range of conditions, either acquired or developmental, that affect the production of speech sounds. This category includes, but is not limited to, the following areas:

Accent – This refers to the regional and international variations in speech production. This category includes interventions described as accent modification or accent reduction in order to improve a person’s communication skills for social or vocational purposes.

Apraxia/dyspraxia – This refers to disorders of speech production that result from impairments to the co-ordination and motor planning of speech sounds. This category includes Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) as well as oral and verbal dyspraxias resulting from acquired neurological conditions.

Articulation – This area includes deficits that are phonetically based and may be associated with developmental, structural, neurological or degenerative conditions. This category includes articulation delays and articulation impairments.

Dysarthria – This area includes the group of disorders that arise from defined neurological conditions and result in difficulty with respiration, phonation, resonance and articulation. This category includes, but is not limited to, different types of dysarthria such as spastic dysarthria, flaccid dysarthria and mixed dysarthria. Spasmodic dysphonia is not included here (see voice).

Perception – This category is applied to studies where participants are referred to as having auditory processing or auditory discrimination disorders. It also encompasses speech perception and sound discrimination difficulties as a result of a hearing impairment.

Phonology – This area refers to impairments that affect a child’s sound system and includes phonological delays and disorders.

Resonance – This area includes impairments such as hyponasality, hypernasality, nasal emission, mixed or cul-de-sac resonance arising from velopharnygeal incompetence/insufficiency or any other conditions that affect resonance.

Language

This is a broad category that includes all impairments in the comprehension and/or use of spoken language or other symbol systems used for communication. This category includes, but is not limited to, the following areas:

Language Disorders – acquired – This general sub-category refers to communication disorders that arise as a result of an acquired brain impairment (e.g. stroke, traumatic brain injury, brain tumour etc) and are not acquired at birth (i.e. in the perinatal period). For more specificity, this category can also be searched under the following areas:

Aphasia – This area refers to communication disorders that arise from an acquired brain impairment (e.g. stroke) to the language dominant hemisphere of the brain. This includes impairments to receptive language, expressive language or written language skills.

Cognitive-communication disorders – This category refers to the acquired communication disorders that result from dementia, right hemisphere dysfunction, sub-cortical disease processes or traumatic brain injury.

Language disorders – developmental – This general sub-category includes all language disorders/impairments that affect the normal onset and development of language in children. This sub-category encompasses the scope of language disorders and includes those from a diverse range of aetiologies, e.g. hearing impairment, intellectual disability and congenital conditions.

Discourse/text-types – This category includes impairments in communication, developmental or acquired, that affect discourse, conversational skills and/or the use of different forms of oral text-types, e.g. narrative, procedures etc.

Pragmatics/social-communication – This category includes communication disorders, developmental or acquired, that affect the social and or/functional use of language.

Semantics/word finding – This area includes all communication disorders, acquired or developmental, that arise from difficulties with vocabulary, word retrieval or semantic skills.

Syntax/morphology – This area refers to impairments (developmental or acquired) of communication that affect the morphological or syntactic system of an individual.

Swallowing

This is the broad category which includes all disorders, either acquired or from developmental causes, that affect the normal process of eating, drinking or swallowing in adults and children. For more specificity, this category can also be searched under the following areas:

Paediatric Feeding – This area includes all feeding disorders in children such as the failure to eat/drink adequately, gain weight, poor feeding behaviour or food refusal. This category includes feeding-related difficulties associated with developmental or medical conditions.

Dysphagia – This area refers to a condition that affects one or more stages of swallowing, namely the preparatory, oral, pharyngeal and/or oesophageal stages. This may present as a difficulty with sucking, drinking, eating, controlling saliva, protecting the airway or swallowing.

Fluency

This category refers to conditions that are characterised by an abnormal rhythm of speech, including unusual hesitations, pauses or repetitions of words or syllables, interjections of non-speech sounds as well as signs of struggle and tension. This category includes stuttering and cluttering.

Voice

This category includes all communication disorders that result in the abnormal production and/or absences of vocal quality, pitch, loudness, resonance, and/or duration, e.g. spasmodic dysphonia, contact ulcers, vocal nodules etc. This category also includes conditions relating to professional voice use and transgender voice.

Literacy

This is a broad category that includes all disorders that affect the comprehension and/or use of written language for the purpose of communication. For more specificity, this category can also be searched under the following areas:

Preliteracy – This area, also referred to as ’emergent literacy’, includes the acquisition of skills that normally precede the development of reading and writing e.g. phonological awareness, print awareness, storybook reading etc.

Reading/writing/spelling – This area includes skills such as decoding, word recognition, reading fluency, non-word reading, spelling, reading comprehension and written expression.

Type of Intervention

Speech/articulation/phonological therapy

Includes the broad range of therapy techniques used for an articulation or phonological impairment. This includes approaches such as auditory bombardment, minimal pairs training, cued speech, electropalatography, the cycles approach, Melodic Intonation Therapy, accent modification, phonological awareness training, PACT etc.

Language therapy

Includes all treatment techniques for developmental and acquired language disorders for children/adolescents and adults. Examples of techniques include: parent-focused intervention, PACE, constraint induced therapy, focused stimulation, milieu intervention, semantic maps, the Derbyshire program etc.

Fluency/stuttering therapy

Includes all techniques for the treatment of stuttering and other fluency disorders. This includes, but is not limited to: prolonged speech, auditory feedback, The Lidcombe Program, electromyographic feedback, behavioural therapy approaches etc.

Swallowing/feeding intervention

Includes management approaches which address difficulties with eating/drinking and swallowing across the life span. This category includes, but is not limited to:  the use of dietary modifications, assistive devices (e.g. modified feeding utensils), postural adjustment techniques, prostheses, compensatory techniques, rehabilitation exercises etc.

Voice Therapy

Includes management approaches and strategies aimed at addressing voice disorders of a functional and/or organic basis. This encompasses a range of approaches (but is not limited to): relaxation techniques, Lee Silverman Voice Treatment, vocal exercises, vocal hygiene counselling, biofeedback, respiratory and postural techniques, surgical treatments and botulinum toxin injections.

Literacy and pre-literacy intervention

This category encompasses all treatments and approaches that address difficulties with the acquisition of pre-literacy skills as well as impairments, developmental or acquired, in reading, spelling and written expression. Includes, but is not limited to: phonological awareness training, shared storybook reading, print awareness, ‘packaged’ literacy programs, computerised literacy programs etc.

Cognitive rehabilitation

Includes management approaches, strategies and treatment aimed at addressing cognitive deficits (e.g. attention, problem solving, memory etc) resulting from an acquired brain injury.

Social/pragmatic therapy

This category includes all treatments that address difficulties with the use of verbal and non-verbal communication for social purposes that affect an individual’s ability to function socially, academically or occupationally.

Computer based intervention

Note: This category does not include the use of computers for augmentative communication, see: AAC (Augmentative/alternative therapy).

Includes interventions which use computers or computer software packages/programs in the treatment of communication disorders.

AAC (Augmentative/alternative therapy)

Includes all forms of augmentative and alternative communication. Examples include, but are not limited to: sign language, gesturing, symbol/picture systems, communication boards, voice output communication devices, scanning devices etc.

Assistive devices / other technological interventions

Note: This category does not include devices and technology used for augmentative communication, see: AAC (Augmentative/alternative therapy).

Includes any item or piece of equipment used to enhance a person’s communication and/or swallowing, e.g. hearing aids, prosthetic devices, TTY, voice amplifiers, palatal lifts, modified feeding apparatus etc. Technological interventions include (but are not limited to) the use of electropalatography, electrical stimulation devices, feedback machines (EMG), cochlear implants etc.

Surgical

Includes all forms of surgical and invasive techniques to improve a person’s communication and/or swallowing. For example: pharyngoplasty, laryngeal surgery techniques etc.

Pharmacological

Includes all pharmaceuticals administered for the purpose of improving a person’s communication skills and/or swallowing. Includes (but is not limited to) botulinum toxin injections.

Counselling

This category refers to individual or group counselling approaches used by a speech pathologist to assist in coping with, adjusting to, or managing a communication and/or swallowing disorder.

Complementary therapies

Includes other treatment approaches used to manage communication and/or swallowing problems such as acupuncture, music therapy, homeopathy and nutritional therapies.

Education

This refers to the provision of factual information to a client or caregiver/parent/educator in order to assist in the management of a communication and/or swallowing disorder.

Aural habilitation

This includes techniques used to support the development of spoken communication skills in individuals with a hearing impairment, e.g. auditory perceptual training, speech reading and the management of hearing aids and other assistive listening devices.

Other

All treatment techniques not categorised under another heading.

Within this population

Alzheimer’s and other dementias

This category includes Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias such as Multi-infarct / Vascular Dementia, Frontal Lobe / Fronto Temporal Dementia, Picks Disease, Semantic Dementia, Lewy Body Dementia, Primary Progressive Aphasia and Non-specified Dementia.

Attention deficit disorders

This category refers to all diagnoses of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Autistic spectrum disorders

This category refers to all disorders on the autism spectrum and encompasses disorders previously referred to as childhood autism, Kanner’s autism, high-functioning autism, atypical autism, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified, childhood disintegrative disorder and Asperger’s disorder.

Cancer

This is a broad category that includes neoplasms that affect the oral cavity (lips, tongue, cheeks, mouth, palate or jaw) nasal cavity, pharynx, oesophagus or larynx. This category also includes brain tumours (e.g. astrocytoma, medulloblastoma) as well as childhood cancer (e.g. leukaemia). Also included in this category are communication and swallowing disorders that result from the medical treatment of cancer.

Child-onset fluency disorder

Note – The following definition was adapted from the American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V) Arlington, VA, American Psychiatric Association, 2013.

Also known as stuttering, this category refers to a disturbance in the normal fluency and time patterning of speech that is inappropriate for an individual’s age and occurs in the early stages of development. This is characterised by unusual hesitations, pauses or repetitions of words or syllables, interjections of non-speech sounds as well as signs of struggle and tension. This disorder is not attributable to a speech-motor or sensory deficit, dysfluency associated with a neurological condition (e.g. stroke, tumor, trauma) or another medical condition and is not better explained by another mental disorder.

Cerebral Palsy

This category includes all forms of cerebral palsy such as spastic cerebral palsy, athetoid cerebral palsy, ataxic cerebral palsy and mixed cerebral palsy.

Cleft lip/palate and craniofacial abnormalities

This category refers to unilateral and bilateral clefts to the lip and/or palate. This category also includes non-syndromal craniofacial anomalies, e.g. craniosyntosis, facial palsy, hemi-facial microsomia, arhnia, ankyloglossia (tongue tie) etc.

Congenital syndromes

This category includes conditions that are characterised by a set of distinctive features, present at births that are referred to as a ‘syndrome’. This is a large category and includes syndromes such as Down Syndrome, Alport Syndrome, Fragile-X Syndrome, Turner Syndrome, Usher Syndrome, Crouzon Syndrome etc.

Degenerative disorders/diseases

This category includes diseases such as the following: Multiple Sclerosis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Huntington’s disease, Locked in Syndrome, Motor Neurone Disease (MND), Parkinson’s disease, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Wilson’s disease, Muscular Dystrophy etc.

Gastrointestinal Conditions

This category includes conditions of the stomach and intestinal system such as: Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), Colic, Gastroenteritis, Hernias, ulcers etc.

General Medical

This is broad category that includes a range of medical conditions which may result in either communication and/or swallowing disorders. These include, but are not limited to: HIV/AIDS, burns, local trauma, post surgical conditions, systemic rheumatic diseases, e.g. rheumatoid arthritis, poliomyelitis, connective tissue disorders, e.g. scleroderma.

Gerontology

This category refers to the conditions or processes related to the health of the elderly or aging.

Hearing and visual impairment

This category refers to sensory impairments, acquired or congenital, that affect either the hearing and/or vision of an individual.

Intellectual disability

This category refers to individuals over the age of five years who are described as having below average general intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behaviour which have manifested during the developmental period.

Language disorder (developmental)

Note – The following definition was adapted from the American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V) Arlington, VA, American Psychiatric Association, 2013.

This disorder is characterised by persistent difficulties in the acquisition and use of language across modalities (i.e. spoken, written, sign language or other) due to deficits in comprehension and production. The diagnostic criteria for this disorder include language abilities which are significantly below those expected for an individual’s age with an onset in the early developmental period. This disorder is not attributable to a hearing impairment or any other medical or neurological condition and is not better explained by an intellectual disability or global developmental delay.

Laryngectomy

This category refers to clients who have had surgery to remove part or all of the larynx.

Mental Health

This category encompasses all conditions or states that affect the psychological well being of a child, adolescent or adult. This includes, but is not limited to: anxiety disorders, mood disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders, attachment disorders, emotional disorders/behavioral disorders, parent/child interaction disorders (where a parent has a mental illness), conduct disorder, conversion disorders and elective mutism.

Multilingual

This refers to individuals who speak and understand more than one language.

Neonatal Conditions

This category includes the scope of health conditions that are present in the neonatal period. This includes, but is not limited to: Respiratory Distress Syndrome, chemically dependant infants, failure to thrive/prematurity, Central Hypoventilation Syndrome, Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy, Chronic Neonatal Lung Disease, tracheal stenosis, Gastroschisis, Congenital Heart Disease and Broncopulmonary Dysplasia.

Neurological conditions

This is a broad category that encompasses all conditions that affect the neurological system which do not fall under another category. This includes, but is not limited to: Hydrocephalus, Encephalitis, Meningitis, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, Spina bifida, Hypoxia/anoxia, Epilepsy/seizures/convulsions, Neurotoxicity, Amnestic syndrome, Organic Brain Syndrome, Landau-Kleffner syndrome, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Lupus), Ballint-Holmes syndrome, Metabolic disorders, Autosome disorders and Drug and Alcohol related brain damage/disorders.

Respiratory conditions

This refers to conditions that affect the lungs and upper respiratory tact. These include, but are not limited to: Asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, chronic coughing, pulmonary oedema and allergies.

Speech sound disorder (developmental)

Note – The following definition was adapted from the American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V) Arlington, VA, American Psychiatric Association, 2013.

This refers to a persistent difficulty with speech sound production that interferes with speech intelligibility or prevents verbal communication of messages, with an onset of symptoms in the early developmental period. The disorder cannot otherwise be attributed to congenital or acquired conditions, such as cerebral palsy, cleft palate, deafness or hearing loss, traumatic brain injury, or other medical or neurological conditions.

Stroke

This category includes, but is not limited to: Stroke, aneurysms, arteriovenous malformation, cerebral ischemia, haemorrhages and other cerebrovascular disorders. Multi-infarct dementia is not classified here.

Tracheostomy

This category applies to clients who have undergone a surgical procedure that creates an airway in the cervical trachea (tracheostomy).

Traumatic brain injury

This category refers to neurological damage resulting from the impact of external forces. This includes conditions such as: concussion, coma, closed head injury, open/penetrating head injury, axonal damage etc.

At risk

This category is used when an article states that the participants undergoing an intervention were a known risk group for the development of a communication and/or swallowing disorder.

Age  Group

Under 2 0 – 24 months

Under 5 25 months – 4 years, 11 months

Children 5 – 11 years

Adolescents 12 – 17 years

Adults 18 years and older

Type of Service Delivered

Individual

The delivery of therapy services in a one to one setting.

Group

The provision of therapy services to more than one individual at a time.

Educator/parent/caregiver/peer

This refers to the provision of training or education to an educator/parent/caregiver/peer of a person with a communication and/or swallowing disorder as part of the treatment.

Consultation/collaboration

Consultative service delivery refers to the provision of training, recommendations or information by a speech pathologist to a client or other agency related to the management of a communication/swallowing disorder. Collaborative service delivery refers a speech pathologist working jointly with other professionals to treat a communication/swallowing disorder.

Distance

The use of telecommunications technology to deliver therapy services, e.g. video teleconferencing.

Research Design

Systematic Review (SRW)

A systematic review is an overview of primary studies which contains an explicit statement of objectives, materials, and methods and has been conducted according to explicit and reproducible methodology. Meta analyses are also included in this category.

Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT)

An RCT compares at least two treatments/interventions, one of which can be a no-treatment control or a wait-list control condition. These trials involve random allocation where participants are randomly allocated to groups for either the intervention/treatment being studied or control/placebo using a random mechanism, such as coin toss, random number table, or computer-generated random numbers, and the outcomes are compared. Pseudo or intended-to-be-randomised trials are not included in this category where participants are allocated to groups for intervention/treatment or control/placebo using a non-random method (such as alternate allocation or by odd or even hospital numbers).

Non-Randomised Controlled Trial (NRCT)

This type of trial is similar to an RCT in that it compares at least two treatments/interventions, one of which can be a no-treatment control or a wait-list control condition, with the exception that participants have not been randomly allocated to groups.

Case Series (CS)

A group (or groups) of participants are exposed to one treatment/intervention and outcomes are measured in participants before and after exposure to the treatment/intervention.

Single-Case Design (SCED)

This type of study compares the effectiveness of interventions using the same (single) participant as his/her own control by assessing treatment effects over several different points in time as treatments are systematically applied and sometimes withdrawn.

Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG)

Clinical practice guidelines are systematically developed statements that help clinicians and consumers make appropriate healthcare decisions. Such guidelines present statements or recommendations of ‘best practice’ based on a thorough evaluation of the evidence from published research studies on the outcomes of treatment.