Speech-language therapy

Speech-language therapy, also called speech and language pathology (SLPs), is "the practice of speech-language pathology includes prevention, diagnosis, habilitation, and rehabilitation of communication, swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive disorders; elective modification of communication behaviors; and enhancement of communication."

Persons with autism may require speech-language therapy when "language skills are slow to develop or speech is delayed".

The scope of speech therapy is more than simply training and teaching a child to correctly pronounce words and phrases. Such a therapy also covers at least the following four functional areas:


 * Conversation skills: Designed to improve conversation skills like back-and-forth exchanges of relevant talks between tow or more persons.
 * Concept skills: Designed to improve the understanding of the meaning of concepts - one may recite the concepts word-by-word without really understanding the same. Concept skills involve understanding of the meaning and significance of concepts like "liberty" or "justice".
 * Non-verbal communication: Designed to improve body language by simple gestures, electronic talking devices, etc.
 * Speech pragmatics: Designed to improve the ability to use certain phrases and use conversation skills at appropriate time. For example, saying good morning is fine, but it is also important to know when to say it.