What are Speech Disorders?
Speech disorders affect a person’s ability to form the sounds that allow them to communicate with other people. They are not the same as language disorders.
Speech disorders prevent people from forming correct speech sounds, while language disorders affect a person’s ability to learn words or understand what others say to them.
However, both speech and language disorders can make it more difficult for a person to express their thoughts and feelings to others.
Types of Speech Disorders
There are many types of disorders within various categories, and each person’s condition may be different. Following are some of the most common speech disorders that speech therapists treat.
1. Childhood Apraxia of Speech
With childhood apraxia of speech, a child has trouble making accurate movements when speaking. It occurs because the brain has difficulty coordinating the movements.
2. Orofacial Myofunctional Disorders
Children, teenagers, and adults may suffer from these abnormal movement patterns of the face and mouth. They occur due to an abnormal growth and development of facial muscles and bones, the cause of which is unclear. Individuals with orofacial myofunctional disorders may have trouble eating, talking, breathing through the nose, swallowing, or drinking.
3. Speech Sound Disorders/Articulation Disorders
Especially common in young children, articulation disorders are based on the inability to form certain sounds. Instead, certain words and sounds may be distorted, such as making the “th” sound in place of an “s” sound.
4. Stuttering and Other Fluency Disorders
Stuttering can come in a number of forms, including “blocks” characterized by long pauses, “prolongations” characterized by stretching out a sound, and “repetitions” characterized by repeating a particular sound in a word. Stuttering is not always a constant, and it can be exacerbated by nervousness or excitement.
Individuals who stutter may feel tenseness in their bodies and may even avoid situations or words that may trigger their stuttering. Secondary physical behaviors may include excessive eye blinking or jaw tightening.
5. Receptive Disorders
Receptive disorders are characterized by trouble understanding and processing what others say, causing trouble following directions or a limited vocabulary. Disorders such as autism can lead to receptive disorders.
6. Autism-Related Speech Disorders
Communication concerns are one aspect of autism spectrum disorder, which involves challenges with social skills and repetitive behaviors. An individual with autism may have difficulty understanding and using words, learning to read or write, or having conversations.
He or she may also be hard to understand, use a robotic voice, and speak very little or not at all.
7. Resonance Disorders
Resonance disorders occur due to a blockage or obstruction of airflow in the nose, mouth, or throat, which may affect the vibrations that determine voice quality. Cleft palate and swollen tonsils are two causes of resonance disorders.
8. Selective Mutism
Most often seen in children and teens, selective mutism is an anxiety disorder characterized by a child’s inability to speak and communicate effectively in select social settings. Teenagers who experience selective mutism may have more pronounced social phobias.
9. Brain Injury-Related Speech Disorders/Dysarthria
Dysarthria occurs when the muscles in the lips, mouth, tongue, or jaws are too weak to properly form words, usually due to brain damage. These include traumatic brain injury and right hemisphere brain injury.
10. Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms
ADHD makes it hard for individuals to pay attention and control their own behavior, leading to various problems with communication. Although not everyone with ADD has the hyperactivity aspect of the disorder, those who do may have trouble sitting still as well. A speech and language pathologist can help improve the communication aspect of ADHD.
Signs and Symptoms of Speech Disorders
1. YOUR CHILD STUTTERS.
Stuttering is an obvious indication that your child needs speech therapy. Children who stutter may repeat whole words (He-he-he- ran to the door) or the first syllable of a word (j-j-jump). Sometimes stuttering children may avoid talking altogether.
2. YOUR CHILD HAS AN INCONSISTENT VOICE QUALITY.
Not all signs of a speech disorder have to do with vowels or consonants. Often, children who have a hoarse voice or inability to control volume may need early intervention. They also may have trouble emphasizing the correct syllable of a word, even though they pronounce a word correctly (such as saying BA- NAN-A instead of ba-NAN-a).
3. YOUR CHILD DOESN’T INTERACT WITH OTHER CHILDREN.
If your baby doesn’t smile or show acknowledgement when someone is speaking or playing, you should consider scheduling an appointment with a speech therapist.
4. YOUR CHILD DOESN’T BABBLE.
Between four and seven months of age, your child should be babbling or making “nonsense” noises. These sounds are important because they will help your son or daughter learn words.
5. YOUR CHILD SHOWS SPEECH INCONSISTENCY.
For example, your child may pronounce a word correctly the first time but incorrectly the second or third time. They may also place gaps between syllables (run…ning).
6. YOUR CHILD HAS A CLEFT PALATE OR OTHER STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS WITH THE MOUTH.
Problems with the lips, jaw or tongue can make it difficult for children to speak clearly and consistently. This can have a devastating effect on their academic progress.
7. YOUR CHILD DOESN’T GESTURE.
Your child should be using gestures such as waving and pointing by the time he or she is seven to twelve months old.
8. YOUR CHILD DOESN’T SPEAK.
When your child doesn’t speak a lot – or at all – this is a red-flag warning. You should also be concerned if your child says fewer than 50 words by the time he or she is two years old.
9. YOUR CHILD HAS SEVERAL EAR INFECTIONS.
You may not equate ear infections with speech disorders, but extensive and chronic ear infections can cause fluid in the middle ear to cause temporary hearing loss. If this happens repeatedly, your child’s speech may be delayed.
10. YOUR CHILD HAS SOME TYPE OF HEARING LOSS OR HEARING DISORDER.
In order to create sounds properly, your child needs to be able to hear them properly. Hearing loss, particularly in the early years, can cause more extensive speech problems further on down the line. If your child has even partial hearing loss, it’s important to work closely with an audiologist speech therapist to be sure he or she has all the skills needed to help them succeed in school and in life.
Causes of Speech Disorders
Disfluencies are disorders in which a person repeats a sound, word, or phrase. Stuttering may be the most serious disfluency. It may be caused by:
- Genetic abnormalities
- Emotional stress
- Any trauma to brain or infection
Articulation and phonological disorders may occur in other family members. Other causes include:
- Problems or changes in the structure or shape of the muscles and bones used to make speech sounds. These changes may include cleft palate and tooth problems.
- Damage to parts of the brain or the nerves (such as from cerebral palsy) that control how the muscles work together to create speech.
- Hearing loss.
Voice disorders are caused by problems when air passes from the lungs, through the vocal cords, and then through the throat, nose, mouth, and lips. A voice disorder may be due to:
- Acid from the stomach moving upward (GERD)
- Cancer of the throat
- Cleft palate or other problems with the palate
- Conditions that damage the nerves that supply the muscles of the vocal cords
- Laryngeal webs or clefts (a birth defect in which a thin layer of tissue is between the vocal cords)
- Noncancerous growths (polyps, nodules, cysts, granulomas, papillomas, or ulcers) on the vocal cords
- Overuse of the vocal cords from screaming, constantly clearing the throat, or singing
- Hearing loss
Treatment of Speech Disorders
Many speech disorders cannot be cured, but by receiving speech and language therapy with a licensed speech pathologist, many children and adults can improve their speech or adapt to alternative communication methods.
Speech therapists can help individuals learn the correct way to make a sound, including when and how to move their mouth and tongue, practice saying certain sounds, learn to tell when a sound is correct or wrong and practice using sounds in longer sentences. Speech pathologists can give children and adults exercises to improve their speech. Additionally, depending on the type of speech disorder, other medical or mental health care might be necessary.
Speech disorders impact children and adults from all walks of life. But these disorders don’t have to stand in the way of their communication, education and careers. Licensed speech pathologists can help individuals improve their speaking, and when helpful, learn to use augmentative and alternative communication methods.
