Speech/Language Terminology
This motor-speech disorder results in unclear speech, usually from damage to the nervous system.
What is dysarthria?
Impaired swallowing that is common after a stroke, but may also result from other neurological conditions or physical damage
What is dysphagia?
It’s the brain’s largest section and plays a key role in decision making, problem solving, control of purposeful behaviors, consciousness, and emotions.
What is the frontal lobe?
When more than one disease or condition is present in a person at the same time.
What is comirbidity?
This celebrated actor didn’t talk for nearly 10 years due to a stutter. Reciting poetry helped him find his voice.
Who is James Earl Jones?
This WO REHAB SLP is a self-proclaimed internet sleuth.
Who is Chloe?
This motor-speech disorder that results in the inability to control the muscles used to form words, resulting when messages from the brain to the mouth are disrupted
What is apraxia?
Often due to aging, this condition occurs when the salivary glands don’t produce enough saliva to keep the mouth wet.
What is xerostomia?
This WO REHAB SLP played drums in her high school and college pep bands.
Who is Leah?
In this rare, autoimmune disorder, a person’s own immune system damages the nerves, causing muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis.
What is Guillan-Barre Syndrome?
This famous actress' breathy voice resulted from her speech therapist teaching her to deliberately breathe prior to speaking to control her stutter.
Who is Marilyn Monroe?
Although not important to articulation in English, this small, flexible flap enables the French to produce their characteristic “trill” sound.
What is the uvula?
This condition is characterized by the inability to understand written language, usually resulting from brain damage.
What is alexia?
This is the first phase of swallowing, when teeth and tongue work food, mix it with saliva and propel it back and into the pharynx.
What is the oral phase?
This lobe plays a key role in hearing, understanding language, and memory.
What is the temporal lobe?
The use of digital information and communication technologies to access health care services remotely.
What is telehealth?
This WO REHAB SLP is ambidextrous.
Who is Amelie?
A labio-dental sound is produced when the lower lip contacts the upper teeth, as in the pronunciation of this letter.
What is F?
This voice disorder can manifest as a hoarse, breathy, strained, or shaky voice.
What is dysphonia?
In the pharyngeal swallowing phase, a flap of cartilage folds down to cover the trachea to prevent for from entering the airway.
What is the epiglottis?
This part of the brain is the primary center for processing visual information.
What is the occipital lobe?
This WO REHAB SLP loves her one-eyed cat.
Who is Rachel?
Teased and bullied for his lisp, this athlete turned to his sport as an escape and became the most decorated Olympian of all time.
Who is Michael Phelps?
The nasal cavity is separated from the oral cavity by this hard and soft mouth structure.
What is the palate?
This communication disorder is the loss of the ability to speak, to understand what someone else is saying, or both.
What is aphasia?
This series of wave-like muscle contractions propel food down the esophagus and into the stomach
What is peristalsis?
This part of the brain regulates automatic body functions such as breathing and heart rate.
What is the brainstem?
A return to an acute care hospital within 30 days of discharge.
What is readmission?
This actor has struggled with stuttering throughout his life. He found that acting was a good way to force himself to work on the issue and his speech therapist encouraged him to pursue a career as an actor and eventually share a plane with snakes.
Who is Samuel L. Jackson?
This is the source of energy for the production of vocal sound.
What are the lungs?
This WO REHAB SLP trained her dog to use AAC (Alternative and Augmentative Communication).
Who is Minsun?
This is when something that’s supposed to go to your stomach gets into your airways instead.
What is aspiration?
This part of the brain processes sensory information, including touch, temperature, and pain.
What is the parietal lobe?
A surgical procedure to create an opening through the neck into the trachea.
What is a tracheostomy?
A British monarch with a profound stutter was portrayed by Colin Firth in this Oscar-winning film.
What is The King’s Speech?
This is the production of the voice in such a way that the sound seems to come from a source other than the vocal organs of the speaker.
What is ventriloquism?
A person with aphasia sometimes produces these non-words that sound like real words with appropriate intonation.
What is jargon?
This reflex prevents food from entering the airway.
What is the gag reflex?
A broad band of nerve fibers joining the two hemispheres of the brain, facilitating interhemispheric communication.
What is the corpus callosum?
This device mechanically helps pump oxygen into your body.
What is a ventilator?
This animated hunter replaced the R sound with a W sound.
Who is Elmer Fudd?
Voice is the sound produced by these vibrating bodies.
What are vocal cords?