Speech impairment

Speech impairment

Speech disorders or speech impediments are a type of communication disorder where 'normal' speech is disrupted. This can mean stuttering, lisps, etc. Someone who is unable to speak due to a speech disorder is considered mute.

Speech disorders can affect the way a person creates sounds to form words. Certain voice disorders may also be considered speech disorders.

One of the most commonly experienced speech disorders is stuttering. Other speech disorders include:

apraxia: a motor speech disorder caused by damage to the parts of the brain related to speaking

dysarthria: a motor speech disorder in which the muscles of the mouth, face, or respiratory system may become weak or have difficulty moving

Some people with speech disorders are aware of what they would like to say, but are unable to articulate their thoughts. This may lead to self-esteem issues and the development of depression.Speech disorders can affect adults and children. Early treatment can correct these conditions.

Causes

In most cases the cause is unknown. However, there are various known causes of speech impediments, such as "hearing loss, neurological disorders, brain injury, intellectual disability, drug abuse, physical impairments such as Cleft lip and palate, and vocal abuse or misuse.

Types of disorder:

·        Apraxia of speech may result from stroke or progressive illness, and involves inconsistent production of speech sounds and rearranging of sounds in a word ("potato" may become "topato" and next "totapo"). Production of words becomes more difficult with effort, but common phrases may sometimes be spoken spontaneously without effort.

·        Cluttering, a speech and fluency disorder characterized primarily by a rapid rate of speech, which makes speech difficult to understand.

·        Developmental verbal dyspraxia also known as childhood apraxia of speech.

·        Dysarthria is a weakness or paralysis of speech muscles caused by damage to the nerves or brain. Dysarthria is often caused by strokes, parkinsons disease, ALS, head or neck injuries, surgical accident, or cerebral palsy.

·        Dysprosody is the rarest neurological speech disorder. It is characterized by alterations in intensity, in the timing of utterance segments, and in rhythm, cadence, and intonation of words. The changes to the duration, the fundamental frequency, and the intensity of tonic and atonic syllables of the sentences spoken, deprive an individual's particular speech of its characteristics. The cause of dysprosody is usually associated with neurological pathologies such as brain vascular accidents, cranioencephalic traumatisms, and brain tumors.

·        Muteness is complete inability to speak.

·        Speech sound disorders involve difficulty in producing specific speech sounds (most often certain consonants, such as /s/ or /r/), and are subdivided into articulation disorders (also called phonetic disorders) and phonemic disorders. Articulation disorders are characterized by difficulty learning to produce sounds physically. Phonemic disorders are characterized by difficulty in learning the sound distinctions of a language, so that one sound may be used in place of many. However, it is not uncommon for a single person to have a mixed speech sound disorder with both phonemic and phonetic components.

·        Stuttering affects approximately 1% of the adult population.

·        Voice disorders are impairments, often physical, that involve the function of the larynx or vocal resonance.

Symptoms

Depending on the cause of the speech disorder, several symptoms may be present. Common symptoms experienced by people with speech disorders are:

·        repeating sounds (most often seen in people who stutter)

·        adding extra sounds and words

·        elongating words

·        making jerky movements while talking (usually involving the head)

·        blinking several times while talking

·        visible frustration when trying to communicate

·        taking frequent pauses when talking

·        distorting sounds when talking

·        hoarseness (raspy or gravely sounding voice)

Treatment:

Many of these types of disorders can be treated by speech therapy, but others require medical attention by a doctor in phoniatrics. Other treatments include correction of organic conditions and psychotherapy.

Patients will be treated in teams, depending on the type of disorder they have. A team can include SLPs, specialists, family doctors, teachers,and family members.

Language disorders

Language disorders are usually considered distinct from speech disorders, even though they are often used synonymously.

Speech disorders refer to problems in producing the sounds of speech or with the quality of voice, where language disorders are usually an impairment of either understanding words or being able to use words and does not have to do with speech production.