Speech–language pathology, also known as speech and language pathology or logopedics, is a healthcare and academic discipline concerning the evaluation, treatment, and prevention of communication disorders, including expressive and mixed receptive-expressive language disorders, voice disorders, speech sound disorders, speech disfluency, pragmatic language impairments, and social communication difficulties, as well as swallowing disorders across the lifespan. It is an allied health profession regulated by professional state licensing boards in the United States of America, and Speech Pathology Australia. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) monitors state laws, lobbies & advocates for SLPs. The field of speech-language pathology is practiced by a clinician known as a speech–language pathologist (SLP) or a speech and language therapist (SLT). SLPs also play an important role in the screening, diagnosis, and treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), often in collaboration with pediatricians and psychologists.
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Speech–language pathology in the context of International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation for the sounds of speech. The IPA is used by linguists, lexicographers, foreign language students and teachers, speech–language pathologists, singers, actors, constructed language creators, and translators.
The IPA is designed to represent those qualities of speech that are part of lexical (and, to a limited extent, prosodic) sounds in spoken (oral) language: phones, intonation and the separation of syllables. To represent additional qualities of speech – such as tooth gnashing, lisping, and sounds made with a cleft palate – an extended set of symbols may be used.
Speech–language pathology in the context of American Speech–Language–Hearing Association
The American Speech–Language–Hearing Association (ASHA) is a professional association for speech–language pathologists, audiologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists in the United States and internationally. The association reported over 234,000 members and affiliates in its 2023 report.
The association's national office is located at 2200 Research Boulevard, Rockville, Maryland. The organization also has an office on Capitol Hill.
Speech–language pathology in the context of Epidemiology of autism
The epidemiology of autism is the study of the incidence and distribution of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). A 2022 systematic review of global prevalence of autism spectrum disorders found a median prevalence of 1% in children in studies published from 2012 to 2021, with a trend of increasing prevalence over time. However, the study's 1% figure may reflect an underestimate of prevalence in low- and middle-income countries.
Socioeconomic barriers also affect access to treatment. Due to the high cost of individualized therapies such as applied behavior analysis (ABA), speech therapy, and occupational therapy; approximately 36% of children with ASD face difficulty affording care or remain untreated.