Communication Sciences and Disorders

What do speech-language pathologists do?

• Help individuals with articulation disorders learn how to say speech sounds correctly
• Assist individuals with voice disorders develop proper control of the vocal and respiratory systems for correct voice production
• Assist individuals who stutter increase their fluency
• Help children with language disorders improve language comprehension and production (e.g., grammar, vocabulary, and conversation, and story-telling skills)
• Assist individuals with aphasia improve comprehension of speech and reading and production of spoken and written language
• Assist individuals with severe communication disorders with the use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems, including speech-generating devices (SGDs)
• Help individuals with speech and language disorders and their communication partners understand the disorders to achieve more effective communication in educational, social, and vocational settings
• Advise individuals and the community on how to prevent speech and language disorders
• Help people with Swallowing disorders
• Help people with cognitive-communication disorders – the impairment of cognitive processes including attention, memory, abstract reasoning, awareness, and executive functions (e.g., self-monitoring, planning and problem solving).
• Auditory processing disorders – the inability to understand spoken language in the absence of a hearing problem.
• Accent modification for individuals without communication disorders.

(Source: www.asha.org)