Logopedics

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The branch of medicine and education concerned with studying, diagnosing and treating disorders of speech, voice and language
2. The professional field devoted to understanding and correcting problems with how people produce and comprehend spoken language
3. Speech and language pathology as a discipline, covering the assessment and remediation of impaired communication abilities

Etymology: "Logopedics" is built from two Ancient Greek words: "lógos," meaning speech, word, discourse, or reason, and "paideía," meaning the rearing and education of a child. Put together, the sense is roughly "the education of speech," and that is essentially what the term still names: the training and correction of spoken language. The pairing reflects how the word was assembled rather than how Greek speakers used it. The Greeks had no such discipline, so the term is a modern coinage made from classical parts, the same method used for many scientific and medical vocabulary. The second element, "paideía," also appears in "pedagogy," which shares its root, so readers who know that word are already familiar with the building block.

Synonyms: speech therapy, speech pathology, speech-language pathology