Acquired apraxia of speech (AOS) (also referred to as verbal apraxia or dyspraxia) is a motor speech disorder that occurs when there is damage to the areas of the brain responsible for planning, sequencing, and coordinating the movements needed for speech.  

Allied health assistants (AHA) may also be called rehabilitation assistants, therapy assistants, therapy aides and support workers, depending on the work context or location. However, it is important to note that a 'support worker' or 'disability support worker' have different roles to AHAs.  Support workers provide assistance to individuals and families that are generally focused on activities of daily living (ADLs) such as showering, eating, dressing, cooking, cleaning, and community access.  Unlike AHAs, support workers do not perform therapy tasks unless directed and supported by a speech pathologist or other health professional.

Requires the use of additional materials/aids. Aided AAC can either be high tech or low tech.

Allophones are variants of a phoneme that are conditioned by phonetic context and are language dependent. 

Aphasia is an acquired language disorder caused by neurological injury to the language centres in the brain.  Aphasia may affects a person’s ability to speak, understand language, read, and write.

A person with an articulation disorder has difficulty physically producing individual speech sounds using the lips, teether, tongue, palate, voice and respiration.

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is the use of modes of communication that supplement, replace, or facilitate existing spoken language skills.

A bound morpheme, by contrast, can only occur in words if it’s accompanied by one or more other morphemes. For example, the 'ing' on the end of the word 'reading' is a bound morpheme.  It cannot exist on it's own in the English language - it needs to be attached to another morpheme (in this case a free morpheme) to have meaning.

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that causes difficulties with the programming and planning of the motor movements required for clear speech.

Chronological age is how old someone is in actual calendar time.  This refers to the amount of time that has passed since their birth, measured in years, months, and days.

Clinical reasoning, or problem solving, is a complex concept involving cognitive processes and has been described as “the often intangible, rarely explicated thought processes that lead to the clinical decisions” that clinicians make on a daily basis when providing services to individuals, families and communities in specific practice contexts (McAllister & Rose, 2000, p. 205). 

Cluttering generally is when a person uses a rapid or disorganised speech pattern which is often characterised by unclear, imprecise, slurred or poorly structured speech.  People who clutter often speech very quickly, omit syllables or words, or mix elements of words together which makes them sound jumbled.  Typically, a person who clutters will not demonstrate physical behaviours associated with their speech (unlike in stuttering).  A person who clutters may have difficulty organising their thoughts and they may be unaware of the nature of their disorganised speech pattern.

Content is the actual information, ideas, words (vocabulary) or message, and the meaning of the message being communicated—the what of communication.

This membership category is for suitably qualified speech pathologists engaged in activities of speech pathology practice who meet the Certification requirements for Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP) status.  CPSP status entitles speech pathologists to provide rebateable services for government-funded schemes such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and Medicare.

Cultural awareness involves demonstrating an awareness of, and sensitivities to, difference and diversity, and therefore, different care is required for different peoples (Taylor & Guerin, 2014). Cultural awareness also involves awareness of one’s own culture and influences upon behaviours, judgements and beliefs (Taylor & Guerin, 2014).

‘describes the capacity to respond to the healthcare issues of diverse communities’ (Victorian Department of Health, 2009, pg. 4).

Cultural safety is the experience of the recipient of care, it is not defined by the caregiver or health provider (Mohamed et al., 2024).  ‘cultural safety is not something that the practitioner, system, organisation or program can claim to provide, but rather it is something that is experienced by the consumer/client’ (Walker et al., 2014, p.201).

Cultural security shifts the focus from individual practitioners or staff to the health and human services systems in which they operate, and the decisions and actions of government and non-Indigenous parties.  It relates to how systems ensure that the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to access and receive high quality services are met through the consideration and incorporation of culture in policy and practice (Australian Human Rights Commission 2011; Coffin 2007; Mohamed et al., 2024).

Dysarthria is a group of motor speech disorders that affects the muscles used for the motor execution aspects of speech production. 

The term "dyslexia" is often also used to describe word decoding difficulties

Dysphagia refers to an impairment of the swallowing mechanism that may result in penetration or aspiration of saliva, food or fluid into the airway.

Evidence-based practice (EBP) in speech pathology has been defined as “an approach in which current, high-quality research evidence is integrated with practitioner expertise and client preferences and values, into the process of making clinical decisions” (ASHA, 2005, p. 1). 

The smoothness, ease, and natural flow with which a person speaks.

Form refers to the structure, medium, and style in which a message is delivered. It encompasses the how of communication.

A free morpheme is one that can occur as a word on its own. For example, cat is a free morpheme.

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, also commonly known as the ICF, is a classification of health and health-related domains and considers the dynamic interactions between a person's health condition and contextual aspects of a person's life including personal and environmental factors. The ICF is the international standard for framing, describing, recording and measuring functioning and disability (WHO, 2001).

The term language refers to a system of conventional (shared) symbols by means of which people, as members of social or cultural groups, use to communicate.

Literacy is a term used to refer specifically to language in written form.

A morpheme is the smallest meaning unit in a language.

Speech pathologists who are members of Speech Pathology Australia can use this acronym.

Multimodal Communication (MMC) is a term for describing the use of different modes of communication.

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in speech that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.

Phonemic awareness is a meta-language skill that involves the ability to recognise and manipulate individual phonemes (sounds) in words.

Phonological awareness is a meta-language skills that involves the ability to recognise and manipulate parts of sentences and words.

A phonological disorder is a condition where a person has difficulties using speech sounds where they need to in words, despite the fact that they know how to produce the sounds correctly. It is a difficulty related to understanding the rules and sound patterns of their language.

Phonotactics refers to the set of rules governing the permissible arrangements of sounds in a particular language. It deals with the restrictions on the sequence and combination of phonemes (speech sounds) that can occur in words, syllables, and across different positions in a language.

Pragmatics is the study of how context affects meaning, and subsequently how we use language in everyday communication settings.

Prosody refers to the features of speech that involve pitch, loudness, duration, and rhythm.

Reflective practice means engaging in a conscious continuous cycle of self-awareness, self-reflection, self-observation and self-evaluation in order to better understand your actions and reactions (Boud, 1985).

Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning: how the meaning of words combine to form the meaning of sentences. In this chapter, we will analyse linguistic meaning from various perspectives.

Speech refers to the fluent and precise coordination of the tongue, teeth, lips, palate, jaw, voice and respiratory system to create the sounds of our language. Or more simply, it’s the way that we make and use sounds to create words.

Speech Pathology Australia (SPA) is the national peak body for the speech pathology profession in Australia.

Speech sound disorder is an umbrella term used to describe difficulties with either creating or correctly using sounds and syllables within words to produce clear speech.

Stuttering is the most common fluency disorder and involves frequent disruptions in the flow of speech (primary stuttering characteristics).  Other physical behaviours (secondary stuttering characteristics) may also be observable.  Often stuttering occurs on specific sounds, syllables or words, and it can affect a person’s ability to communicate efficiently and effectively, especially in stressful or high-pressure situations.

Suprasegmentals are elements of speech that exist above the level of individual phonemes (the basic speech sounds) and are concerned with the prosodic features that extend over multiple segments of speech (such as syllables, words, or phrases).

Swallowing, also commonly referred to as ‘deglutition’, is a complex process that involves the coordinated movement of saliva, food or liquid from the mouth to the stomach

Syntax is the study of how words are organized into phrases and sentences.

Relies on body or hand movements and does not require additional materials/aids. For example, body language, facial expressions and hand/body signs.

Use refers to the purpose or function of the communication—why and how the message is being sent. The social exchange of language.