Speech-Language Pathology is the study of communication disorders. Speech and language disorders refer to problems in communication and can take many forms. Communication is the exchange of information, the sending and receiving of messages and is categorized into two areas: receptive and expressive. The ability to comprehend someone else's speech, sentences, or gestures is called receptive language. The ability to create a spoken message that others will understand is called expressive language.

Speech includes: the articulation of speech sounds, fluency, and/or voice. It refers to the sounds that come out of our mouths and take shape in the form of words. Speech is a motor act with the production of sounds in meaningful combinations by the lips, tongue, teeth, palate, vocal cords, and lungs. A fluency disorder is an interruption in the flow or rhythm of speech characterized by hesitations, repetitions, or prolongations of nouns, syllables, words, or phrases.

Language refers to the content of what is spoken, written, read, or understood and can also be gestural, as when we use body language or sign language. Language is made up of five areas including: form (phonology, morphology, syntax), content (semantics), and function (pragmatics).