PalmBeachSpeechTeach

06/11/2026

Phoneme awareness is the ability to break down a word into the smallest unit or sound. This includes phoneme isolation, blending, segmenting, addition, deletion, and substitution.

It’s ESSENTIAL to work on these skills starting in Preschool and continuing to focus on them in Kindergarten and First Grade!

05/27/2026

May is National Speech-Language-Hearing Month

01/13/2026

11/20/2025

Did you know a correlation exists between children with a speech/language delay and reading difficulties?

Source: Lewis, et al., 2006

There is a strong connection between spoken language and literacy. We can leverage our expertise in language and its components (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) to prevent, assess, and support literacy skills!

11/06/2025

Did you know? English has approximately 24 consonant sounds, while Spanish has around 18. This difference explains why sounds like /v/ or /θ/ can be particularly challenging for bilingual speakers.

Note that Spanish has two r phonemes: a tap /ɾ/ and a trill /r/. English /ɹ/ is unique.

11/02/2025

A child’s vocabulary size at age 2 is more than just a milestone. This highlights the importance of early intervention, early language screening, and parent coaching. When we support vocabulary growth in the toddler years, through play, modeling, and responsive interaction, we’re not just building words, we’re shaping future literacy success.

10/28/2025

Why do we work on basic concepts? They are critical not only to language and communication, but to a student’s overall academic success. Basic concepts encompass: following directions and routines, understanding mathematical terminology, and literacy.

Example types:
▫️Qualitative
▫️Positional
▫️Temporal
▫️Quantitative
▫️Negation
▫️Emotions
▫️Characteristics
▫️Colors
▫️Shapes
▫️Sizes
▫️Patterns
▫️Textures

What’s the hardest one for you to target?

10/28/2025

You asked, and here it is - comparing all these terms!

These terms reflect different distinct underlying challenges that impact language and communication skills.

Receptive and expressive language disorders are focused directly on either understanding or expressing language, whereas other disorders, like LPD and APD, impact the processing of language or sound.

10/01/2025

SOCIAL COMMUNICATION • Social communication is the use of language in social contexts. It includes social interaction, social cognition, pragmatics, and language processing. These terms are closely related and are sometimes used interchangeably, but they have different meanings!

1️⃣ Social interaction: The relationship between individuals. Our speech style and context, gender communication differences, and rules for linguistic politeness all fall under this definition.

2️⃣ Social cognition: This is how we process and apply information about social situations. Our ability to take the perspective of others and modify language use, as well as emotional understanding and expression.

3️⃣ Pragmatics: The social skills we use in our interactions with others. Our communicative intentions, prosody, social reciprocity, as well as body language and nonverbal communication.

4️⃣ Language processing: This is the spoken and written language that allows us to use effective communication.