Communication Disorders, impairments, or delays.

These problems can occur by themselves or along with other developmental problems or diagnosis. Sugar Plum Speech treats a variety of issues and impairments, some of these include:

• Apraxia
• Autism
• Down Syndrome
• Expressive Language Delay
• Phonological Delay
• Receptive Language Delay
• Speech sound disorders
• Stuttering

What is the difference between speech and language?

Speech
Articulation is the ability to produce speech sounds through the coordination of our mouth, tongue, and voice. Problems occurring in this area may cause a child to mispronounce words or to miss entire syllables when speaking.

Language
Expressive language is the words that come out of your mouth. Problems in this area may cause difficulties with word and sentence structure, grammar, vocabulary, verb tenses, etc. Receptive language is the ability to understand language. Problems in this area may cause difficulties in understanding directions, complex sentences, or even remembering word definitions.
Pragmatics is also called social communication skills. These skills contain the ability to use language appropriately with others, such as using greetings, maintaining a conversation, understanding body language, etc.

How do I know if my child has a delay or disorder?

Children may have problems at any stage in development and in any area of communication. Some errors are typical for different ages and will develop on their own, while other errors persist beyond the normal range of time. Please refer to our Milestones Page for information on when speech and language skills develop.

If you notice that your child is significantly behind his peers, is hard to understand, or appears to behave differently than other children his age, you should get him or her evaluated by an educational agency, a speech-language pathologist, or a developmental pediatrician.