Communication and Speech Science

• Communication involves sharing feelings, ideas, and thoughts from a sender to a receiver.
• Speech represents voluntary neuromuscular behavior to express verbal language.
• Speech perception involves how the brain processes both speech and language.
• Auditory perception refers to how the brain processes any auditory input.

Language Components

• Phonology defines the rules governing how sounds form words.
• Morphology specifies the rules related to word structure.
• Syntax dictates the rules for sentence construction.
• Semantics pertains to the meaning of words.
• Pragmatics involves the social application of language.

Speech Production and Articulation

• Active articulators consist of the lips, tongue, jaw, and velum.
• Passive articulators are static structures.
• The distinction between active and passive articulators is that active ones move, while passive ones remain still.
• Vocal fold adduction occurs when the vocal folds close together.
• Vocal fold abduction refers to when the vocal folds open.
• The diaphragm, a muscle, regulates airflow during breathing.

Motor Speech Disorders

• Dysarthria involves motor execution issues because of muscle control.
• Apraxia involves motor planning deficits, resulting in difficulty with coordinating movements.

Speech & Breathing

• Equal inhalation and exhalation characterize quiet breathing.
• Short inhalation coupled with a prolonged exhalation defines speech breathing.

Learning & Development

• Requesting, rejecting, and commenting are the basic communication purposes.
• Statistical learning involves identifying patterns extracted from the surrounding environment.
• A critical period refers to a specific timeframe when the brain exhibits heightened sensitivity to learning, beginning and ending abruptly.
• A sensitive period is a learning phase that has a more extended and flexible timeframe, beginning and ending gradually.

Disorders & Assessment

• An articulation disorder is difficulty producing speech sounds beyond the expected age.
• A phonological disorder consists of consistent patterns of incorrect usage of sounds.
• Comparison is necessary when distinguishing an articulatory disorder from a phonological disorder.
• Fluency disorders show disruptions in speech flow, like hesitations, repetitions, prolongations, and filler words.
• Voice disorders include abnormalities in pitch, quality, and loudness, inappropriate to a person's age, gender, or culture.

Assessment & Evidence-Based Practice (EBP)

• Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) comprises best research, clinical expertise, and patient values.
• EBP Steps:
  • Frame the clinical question.
  • Find the evidence.
  • Assess the evidence.
  • Make the clinical decision.
• Prevalence is the total number of existing cases in a population, while incidence is the number of new cases in a given period.

WHO Classification of Disease Consequences

• Body (Impairment): Loss of physiological function.
• Activity (Person): Limitations in daily tasks.
• Participation (Social): Restrictions in real-world involvement.

Speech-Language Pathology Laws & Regulations

• PL-94-142: Guarantees free public education in the least restrictive environment for all handicapped children aged 5-21.
• PL-99-457: Extended the provisions of PL-94-142 to children aged 0-21.
• PL-101-336: Civil rights protection for people with disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Respiratory & Phonatory System

• The respiratory system is made up of the trachea and the lungs.

3 Divisions of the respiratory system:

1. Laryngopharynx
2. Oropharynx
3. Nasopharynx

• Laryngopharynx: Extends from above the vocal folds to the hyoid bone.
• Oropharynx: Extends from the hyoid bone to the soft palate.
• Nasopharynx: Extends from the soft palate to the nasal cavity.

Explore the fundamentals of communication and speech science. This covers verbal language expression, speech perception, and auditory processing. It also discusses language components like phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.