Glossary

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Paralinguistic Features(also: Prosodic Cues, Non-Verbal Speech Features)

Aspects of spoken communication that convey meaning beyond the literal words, including pitch, loudness, rhythm, tone, and emotional affect. These features are critical for understanding speaker intent, sarcasm, emphasis, and emotional state but are typically lost in standard…

People Who Stutter(also: PWS, Person Who Stutters, Adults Who Stutter)

An identity-first and community-preferred term for people who experience stuttering, a neurodevelopmental condition involving involuntary speech disfluencies such as blocks, prolongations, and repetitions. PWS affects roughly 1% of the global population. Community usage (PWS,…

Perceptual Analysis(also: Perceptual Judgment, Auditory-Perceptual Analysis)

A method of evaluating speech, voice, or other sounds based on a human listener's subjective auditory impressions rather than instrumental measurement. In clinical speech-language pathology, perceptual analysis is used to categorize vocalizations, rate voice quality, or assess…

Phoneme(also: Speech Sound)

The smallest unit of sound in a language that can distinguish one word from another. For example, the /b/ and /p/ sounds in "bat" and "pat" are different phonemes. American English has approximately 39 phonemes, compared to 26 letters in the alphabet. In accessibility and AAC…

Phonological Development(also: Speech Sound Development, Phonological Acquisition)

The process by which children learn to produce and organise the speech sounds of their language, progressing from early cooing and vowel-like sounds through canonical babbling (consonant-vowel syllables) to recognisable words and complex phonological patterns. Phonological…

Pre-speech Vocalizations(also: Pre-linguistic Vocalizations, Infant Vocalizations)

Sounds produced by infants before the development of recognizable speech, including cooing, babbling, and other vocal productions. Pre-speech vocalizations are important predictors of later articulation and language abilities, and their analysis can help identify children at…

Prelinguistic Development(also: Pre-Speech Development, Prelinguistic Communication)

Prelinguistic development refers to the stages of vocal and communicative development that occur before an infant produces meaningful words, typically spanning from birth to approximately 12-18 months. This development progresses through recognized stages: the Phonation Stage…

Preverbal Communication(also: Prelinguistic Communication)

The stage of communication development before the consistent use of recognizable words, typically occurring in neurotypical children between birth and approximately 12 months of age. Preverbal communication includes vocalizations (babbling, cooing), gestures, eye gaze, facial…

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