Speech
"Speech refers to the sounds that come out of our mouth and take shape in the form of words,"(Hamaguchi, 1995) The speech process is extremely complicated when you study the scope and sequence of its development.
A number of events must occur for us to speak. The brain MUST:
• Want to communicate an idea to someone else.
• Send the idea to the mouth.
• Tell the mouth which words to say and which sounds make up those words.
• Incorporate patterns and accented syllables (to avoid sounding like a robot).
• Send the signals to the muscles that control the tongue, lips, and jaw; however, the muscles, must have the strength and coordination to carry out the brain’s commands.
The process of developing speech occurs naturally. However, if there is a glitch or disruption in the process, it will affect one’s language.
Language
Language is what we speak, write, read, and understand. Language is also communicating through gestures (body language or sign language). There are two distinct areas of language: receptive (what we hear and understand from others’ speech or gestures) and expressive (the words we use to create messages others will understand).
In order for children to begin using and understanding spoken language, they must:
• Hear well enough to distinguish one word from another.
• Have someone model what words mean and how to put sentences together.
• Hear intonation patterns, accents, and sentence patterns.
• Have the intellectual capability to process what words and sentences mean, store the information, and recall words and sentences heard previously when communicating an idea to someone else.
• Have the physical capability to speak in order for others to hear and understand the words they are saying.
• Have a social need and interest in using words to communicate with others.
• Have another person to positively reinforce their attempts at communication.
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