Communication Disorders

Communication Disorders relates to the components of the process affected by: speech, language, or both. A speech disorder refers to difficulty producing sounds as well as disorders of voice quality (for example, a hoarse voice) of fluency of speech, often referred to as stuttering. A language disorder entails difficulty receiving, understanding, or formulating ideas and information. A receptive language disorder is characterized by difficulty receiving or understanding information. An expressive language disorder is characterized by the difficulty formulating ideas and information. (Turnbull, Turnbull, & Wehmeyer, 2010)

Causes of the disability
“There are two types of speech and language disorders; organic disorders and functional disorders. Organic disorders are caused by problems that can be indentified in the neuromuscular mechanism of the person. Functional Disorders are those that cannot be identified by organic or neurological causes “Turnbull, Turnbull & Wehmeyer, 2010). Furthermore, communication disorders can be classified even more according to when the problem first occurred. Congenital disorder occurs at or before birth. A disorder that occurs after birth is an acquired disorder.  Communication disorder may display at birth and or after birth, one characteristic may be present at birth while others develop later on in life.


Characteristics of the disability

Typical Development

  • Speech is the oral expression of language. This expression occurs when a person produces sounds and syllabus.
  • Language is a structure, shared, rule-governed, symbolic system for communication. There are five parts to our language system; phonology (sound system), morphology (word forms), syntax (word order and sentence structure), semantics (word and sentence meaning), and pragmatics (social use of language)
  • Phonology is the use of sound to make meaningful syllabus and words. This encompasses the rules and sequencing of individual speech sounds (called phonemes) and how they are produced, depending on their placement in a syllable or word.
  • Morphology is the system that governs the structure of words
  • Syntax provides rules for putting together a series of words to form sentences.
  • Semantics refers to the meaning of what is expected is expressed. Semantic development has both receptive and expressive components.
  • Pragmatics refers to the use of communication in contexts. This is the overall organizer for language.

Characteristics of Speech Disorders

Speech disorders include disorders of articulation, voice, fluency (rate and rhythm of speech).  These disorders may occur alone or in combination with another disorder. One of the most common communication disorders in preschool and school-age children is articulation disorder. An articulation disorder occurs when students cannot correctly produce the various sounds and sound combination.  Students may substitute sounds such as “b” for “d”, or make addition or distortion (modification of the productions of a phoneme in a word- lisp is distortion) when they speak. Students also omit phoneme from a word. For example, students may say “amel” for “camel”, or “cool” for “school”. Students also add vowels between constants, such as converting “tree” to “tahree”.

Apraxia of Speech

Apraxia is a speech disorder that affects the way in which a student plans to produce speech. Students with this disorder have difficulty with voluntary, purposeful movements of speech even though they have no paralysis or weakness of the muscle involved in speech. These students may be able to say sounds or syllabus individually, but when it’s combined in a sentence, for example, they have difficulty. Also it is more difficult when they feel pressured to do so.

Fluency disorder

Fluency problems are characterized by interruptions in the flow of speaking, such as atypical rate or rhythm, as well as repetitions of sounds, syllabus, words and phrases. Everyone has some difficulty with fluency at one time or another. Stuttering is a type of dysfluency which is regular repetition of sounds, syllabus and phrase.

 

Characteristics of Language Impairments

Language disorders can be receptive, expressive or both and it could also be associated with another disability, such as autism or intellectual disability. 

  • Phonology- A common language impairment is phonological disorder – the inability to discriminate between speech sounds or sound segments.  For example students may hear “pin” when they should be hearing “pen”.
  • Morphology is associated with specific language impairments. It is the inability of difficulty to use word structure or give information correctly. For instance, students with this challenge may not use “ed” to indicate past tense, or use “s” to indicate plural, making communication that more challenging to understand.
  • Syntax – syntactical errors are those involving word order, such as ordering words in a manner that does not convey meaning to the listeners. (ex. Where one them park at?)
  • Semantics- difficulty using words singly or together in sentences. Students with this disorder may also have difficulty understanding words with more than one meaning, or will restrict the meanings for words. They may also have problems with words that express time and space ( such as night or tiny); cause and effect( push button, ball goes); and inclusion versus exclusion ( all, none).
  • Pragmatics- focuses on the social use of language- the communication between a speaker and a listener within a shared social environment. Students with this disorder may ask questions at an inappropriate time or they may talk for long periods of time without allowing anyone else to talk.

Inclusion  ideas
To include students with Communication Disorders into the general education classroom, encourage  students to use different forms of communication and allow adequate time for students to respond, provide multiple options to make ‘pressured’ situation less stressful, encourage students to have peer buddies to help model ad encourage interaction with other children. Allow small group interactions with assigned roles that allow every student to contribute and finally provide opportunities for students to practice with each other.

Accommodate students’ needs during Assessment by first determining how the student best express himself, receive information and what information is being assessed.  For students who have difficulty with written words,, assessments should be explained verbally or with visual aids, for students who is difficulty with written or verbal form, minimizing the length to which students are required to write long responses to multiple-choice; either way, the format chosen must benefit the student’s needs.

 

Disability support/information groups

Communication Disorder Support Group

Inspire
66 Witherspoon Street
Suite 402
Princeton, NJ 08540
Phone: (800) 945-0381 toll free
Fax: (202) 478-0377

team@inspire.com
www.inspire.com

 

Center for Biobehavioral Neurosciences in Communication Disorders

Mabel L. Rice, BNCD Director

phone 785.864.4570
fax 785.864.4571
email bncd@ku.edu

BNCD Center
University of Kansas
1000 Sunnyside Avenue
3031 Dole Human Development Center
Lawrence, Kansas 66045