Praxis Speech Communication key terms

The professional code that sets out the four core principles and detailed rules governing clinical practice, research, supervision, and business conduct for audiologists and speech-language pathologists.

The official statement defining which activities, populations, and settings fall within the professional boundaries of audiology or speech-language pathology, and which require referral to another profession.

A client's voluntary agreement to assessment or treatment after being told the purpose, risks, benefits, alternatives, and right to refuse, documented in language the client understands.

The ongoing ability to recognize one's own biases and to adapt assessment and treatment to a client's language, values, beliefs, and communication norms rather than applying one cultural standard.

Testing conducted with a trained interpreter when clinician and client do not share a language, requiring careful briefing, standardized interpretation of instructions, and cautious interpretation of scores.

A test-teach-retest approach that measures how quickly a learner improves with support, used to separate language difference from language disorder in culturally and linguistically diverse children.

Collaborative care in which professionals from different disciplines, such as teachers, physicians, and occupational therapists, share goals and coordinate services around a single client.

A legally required written plan for a student receiving special education that specifies present levels, measurable annual goals, services, placement, and progress monitoring procedures.

A tiered school framework of universal instruction, targeted small-group support, and intensive intervention, used to identify students needing special education after data show inadequate response.

Clinical decision making that integrates the best available research evidence, the clinician's expertise, and the client's values and preferences rather than relying on habit or anecdote.

The degree to which an intervention is delivered exactly as designed, including dosage, procedures, and materials, so outcomes can be attributed to the treatment itself.

Baseline data describe performance before treatment begins, while probe data repeatedly sample untrained or trained targets to track change across sessions and support decisions to continue, modify, or stop therapy.

A measurement method that writes several possible outcome levels for one goal, from less than expected to much better than expected, allowing progress to be scored on an individualized scale.

Behavioral testing that presents tones at varied frequencies and levels to find the softest sound heard at each frequency, yielding air- and bone-conduction thresholds.

The graph plotting hearing threshold in decibels against frequency in hertz, using standard symbols for each ear, air conduction, bone conduction, and masking.

The difference between air-conduction and bone-conduction thresholds at the same frequency; a gap indicates conductive hearing loss, while no gap with both reduced suggests sensorineural loss.

Reduced hearing caused by obstruction or dysfunction of the outer or middle ear, producing elevated air-conduction thresholds with normal bone-conduction thresholds.

Hearing loss arising from damage to cochlear hair cells or the auditory nerve, producing elevated thresholds for both air and bone conduction, often with reduced speech clarity.

Inflammation or fluid in the middle ear that impairs sound transmission and is a common cause of temporary conductive loss and fluctuating hearing in young children.

An objective measure of middle-ear mobility that records how sound reflection changes as ear-canal pressure is varied, classifying results as types A, B, or C.

Faint sounds produced by healthy outer hair cells in response to stimulation and recorded with a probe microphone; their absence suggests cochlear damage and they are used in newborn screening.

An electrophysiologic test recording neural activity from the auditory pathway in the first milliseconds after a click or tone, used to estimate thresholds in infants and to assess retrocochlear function.

A disorder in which cochlear outer hair cell function is present but neural transmission is disordered, producing normal emissions with absent or abnormal brainstem responses and poor speech perception.

The lowest presentation level at which a listener correctly repeats about half of presented spondee words, providing a check on the reliability of pure-tone thresholds.

Objective and subjective checks, such as real-ear measurement and aided speech testing, confirming that amplification actually delivers prescribed gain and benefit for the individual wearer.

Awareness that spoken language is composed of words, syllables, and individual sounds, including the ability to rhyme, blend, segment, and manipulate those units.

The most advanced level of phonological awareness, focused specifically on identifying and manipulating individual phonemes, such as deleting the first sound from a spoken word.

A speech sound disorder in which errors reflect impaired knowledge of the sound system, often producing consistent rule-based patterns such as final consonant deletion or cluster reduction.

A speech sound disorder involving difficulty producing specific sounds accurately, typically described as substitutions, omissions, additions, or distortions of individual phonemes.

A child's ability to produce a target sound correctly when given a model and cues, which informs prognosis and the choice of treatment targets.

The distinction between typical patterns of a second-language learner and true impairment; difference resolves with support and exposure, while disorder persists across languages and contexts.

A persistent language deficit in a child with otherwise typical cognition, hearing, and social development, affecting vocabulary, grammar, or discourse without an identifiable cause.

The average number of morphemes per utterance in a language sample, used as a developmental index of grammatical complexity, most valid for children up to roughly age five.

Systematic transcription and analysis of spontaneous conversation or narrative to measure syntax, vocabulary, fluency, and pragmatics, complementing standardized test scores.

An acquired language impairment from brain injury, most often left-hemisphere stroke, affecting comprehension, production, naming, or repetition while cognition may remain intact.

Communication changes after right-hemisphere damage, including difficulty with inference, humor, topic maintenance, and prosody, with largely preserved grammar and vocabulary.

The rules governing social use of language, such as turn taking, topic maintenance, presupposition, and adjusting register to the listener and setting.

A progressive decline in cognition affecting memory and at least one other domain, commonly producing word-finding difficulty, reduced comprehension, and eventual loss of functional communication.

Benign callous-like swellings at the midpoint of both vocal folds from chronic vocal abuse, causing hoarseness and typically treated with voice therapy before surgery is considered.

Behavioral practices that protect the voice, including hydration, reducing shouting and throat clearing, managing reflux, and limiting irritants such as smoke and caffeine.

Any disorder of voice production resulting in altered quality, pitch, loudness, or effort, which may arise from organic disease, misuse, or neurologic causes.

A focal dystonia producing involuntary laryngeal spasms, with the adductor type causing strained-strangled breaks and the abductor type causing breathy voice arrests.

A disturbance in the flow of speech characterized by repetitions, prolongations, or blocks that disrupt communication and may be accompanied by avoidance and physical tension.

A treatment approach that does not eliminate stuttering but teaches easier stuttering through cancellation, pull-outs, and preparatory sets, reducing fear and struggle.

A treatment approach that establishes fluent speech using slowed rate, gentle onset, light contact, and continuous phonation, then gradually transfers and stabilizes the new pattern.

A fluency disorder marked by rapid or irregular rate, collapsed syllables, and disorganized language, often with limited awareness of the resulting intelligibility problems.

Difficulty swallowing at any stage from oral preparation through esophageal transit, which can cause aspiration, malnutrition, and dehydration and requires careful safety monitoring.

Entry of food, liquid, or secretions below the level of the true vocal folds into the airway, which may occur silently without coughing in some patients.

A dynamic X-ray study of swallowing with barium-coated materials that shows bolus movement, airway protection, and the effects of compensatory strategies in real time.

A bedside procedure using a flexible endoscope through the nose to view the pharynx and larynx during swallowing, allowing direct observation of residue and aspiration.