Speech vs Communication: Part I: What is the difference?

Part I:  What is the difference?

When it is recommended that your child begin speech therapy or early intervention services, it may be because your child is not yet talking or socializing with others.  If you have a toddler or preschooler, you may be experiencing this right now.  It is important to understand the difference between speech and communication as you move forward and begin therapy.  There is an important element that is often ignored, socialization.  Being social and intentional is the difference between speech and communication.

Communication is the broad term. Speech is a form of communication. However speech can occur without a social component, intent, or meaning.  Parents that I work with often tell me that they just want their children to talk.  I know that what they really mean is that they want them to communicate their wants and needs.

Many times children are not ready to use their words.  We can encourage them to use many other forms of communication. This helps them to understand imitation and tolerate social play (engagement).  I usually suggest modeling play, gestures, and facial expressions as well as sound and words.

Now bear with me, this is important to talk about before moving on to the fun stuff.
I went to Wikipedia to get a brief definition, one that anyone can access.
Here is what I found:

Communication means “to share” . . . “conveying intended meaning from one entity or group to another through the use of mutually understood signs and semiotic rules.” In the semiotic sense, this means the use of sounds, words, images, objects and gestures.

Speech is ” . . . the vocalized form of communication used by humans, which is based upon syntactic combination of items drawn from the lexicon. Each spoken word is created out of the phonetic combination of a limited set of vowel and consonant speech sound units (phonemes).”

Notice the communication definition mentions “intended meaning” and “images, objects and gestures”. Intended meaning is social and directed towards another entity or group. The speech definition describes the use of vowels and consonants with no mention of intended meaning or sharing.

Communication occurs when a verbalization or gesture/sign is used to gain attention, label or request something. It can be used to discuss an event, or give information. It is social and intentional. Communication may even be more subtle than a gesture. It may be an eye gaze, a smile, or other facial expression.

Why is this important?

So let’s go back to wanting children to communicate their wants and needs.  What we really want our children to do is to communicate by pointing, gesturing or talking.  That is what is important, not just saying a word.  Yes, saying a word is verbal and it is speech, but it may not be getting any needs met and it may not have any meaning to the child.

Parents want their child to request cup or drink when they want a drink.  There are different ways that a child can request a drink.  When a child points to his cup or uses a gesture/sign for drink, and it is directed toward someone, he is most likely communicating/requesting.  If a child says cup verbally, he may be requesting or he may be saying the word because it’s fun to say but he wasn’t really labeling or requesting.

Imitation is Key!

Verbally imitating is very important and of course we want to reinforce those efforts.  Sometimes children aren’t quite ready for that yet.  We want to make sure that we are providing a lot of other ways that children can imitate.  Children can become very frustrated when they don’t have a consistent way to communicate.  When children are not picking up language naturally, it is necessary to provide additional opportunities to practice imitation.

Many times I teach kids how to imitate. We cannot make a child verbally imitate a word or even a sound, but we can model appropriate play, gestures, and pointing.  When they are ready by showing interest in what you are doing, offer your hands and show them what it is like to imitate a gesture, like pointing.  Always offer your hands by putting out your hands in front of you (palm sides up) as a gesture to engage or help a child.  Children will begin to put their hands in yours when they feel comfortable.  That’s when communication begins.

So where do we start?

Continue to Part II:  Why is social engagement important?