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Cohoes City School District

SPEECH AND LANGUAGE

The Speech and Language Department exists to work with children who require support for language development. This section of the district website has been developed for parents and students to use to help reinforce positive speech and language habits at home. In addition, it should be used by parents and/or caregivers as a resource to enhance their understanding of typical speech and language development.

Listening to your child

A typical 5-year-old might...

Parents and students can use these resources to play games and work on sounds that are being targeted during speech sessions in school.

 

Areas of speech and language

There are many components of language. The following is a brief description of some of the aspects of language.

 

Semantics - word meaning

If your child has difficulty with semantics then they need to work on the following:

  • Vocabulary (nouns, verbs, prepositions, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs)

  • Categorization

  • Associations

  • Rhyming words

  • Multiple meanings

  • Antonyms/synonyms

  • Similarities/differences

  • Word relationships

Syntax - rules for ordering words in a sentence

If your child has difficulty with syntax then they need to work on the following:

  • Word, phrase, sentences (imitation, production, comprehension)

  • Comprehending and producing complete sentences

  • Increasing sentence length

Morphology - grammar

If your child has difficulty with morphology then they need to work on the following:

  • Parts of speech (nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs etc.)

  • Prefixes/suffixes

  • Contractions

  • Regular and irregular plurals

  • Regular and irregular verbs

  • Verb tense and subject-verb agreement

Articulation - production of specific sounds and/or groups of sounds in isolation, words, phrases, sentences, structured speech and spontaneous speech

If your child has difficulty with articulation then they need to work on producing a particular sound and/or phonological process.

For more information about articulation, click here.

 

Fluency - stuttering, or an abnormality of speech rate or rhythm

If your child difficulty producing fluent speech then they may exhibit one or more of the following:

  • Prolonged sounds

  • Repetition of sounds or words

  • Secondary characteristics (eye blinking, tightened jaw or mouth, etc.)

For more information about fluency, click here.

 

Voice - sound quality

Voice includes the following:

  • Quality

  • Pitch

  • Loudness

  • Duration

  • Intonation