Within the discipline of speech pathology, a speech-language pathologist will work to assess, diagnose and treat speech, language and swallowing disorders in children and adults.
Speech disorders occur when a person has difficulty producing speech sounds correctly or fluently (e.g. stuttering) or has problems with his or her voice or resonance.
Language disorders occur when a person has trouble understanding others or sharing thoughts, ideas, and feelings and include conditions such as dyslexia, dyspraxia and auditory processing disorder.
Swallowing disorders (dysphagia) are feeding and swallowing difficulties, which may follow an illness, surgery, stroke, or injury.