What are Language & Communication Disorders?
A communication disorder means that a child has difficulty with speech, communication, language, or some combination of those. This can manifest in word articulation, written language, or understanding and participating in verbal and nonverbal communication.
Communication disorders affect a wide variety of people for a wide variety of reasons. For children, diagnosis may come after a parent or teacher notices that a child’s speech development is noticeably delayed in comparison to their peers.
Like many disorders, symptoms can range from mild to very severe. It can be as limited as a slight stutter or as severe as the inability to use speech or language to communicate.
Types of Language & Communication Disorders
Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder
Social communication disorder (SCD) or pragmatic communication disorder, consists of impairments with verbal and nonverbal communication specifically involved in social interaction. SCD does not impact language comprehension, such as grammar or punctuation.
Individuals who have SCD experience difficulties in the following areas of social communication:
- Pragmatics, which is interpreting your surroundings to discern the meaning of linguistic context.
- Conceptualizing sentences that are indirect or nonliteral, such as “metaphors, humor, and aphorisms.”
- Verbal communication due to a lack of understanding of social cues and behaviors, like not always knowing when or how to greet people or interjecting during a conversation before the appropriate time.
- Nonverbal communication, such as gestures, eye contact, and facial expressions can also be difficult to comprehend for those with SCD.
- Understanding emotions; those with SCD have trouble expressing their own emotions and understanding the emotional context of a situation.
Language Disorder
Language disorders (LD) consist of difficulties in the acquisition and use of language across different modalities such as spoken, written, or sign language.1 Individuals will most likely find it challenging to produce content that involves:
- Syntax
- Semantics
- Phonology (sound system)
- Morphology (word system)
- Pragmatics
Speech Sound Disorders
Speech disorder is a persistent difficulty with producing speech sounds and challenges with articulating words fluently. It causes limitation in effective communication and being understood. To be diagnosed, the symptoms have to interfere with social, academic, or work performance. It needs to have its onset in early development and it can’t be due to medical conditions such as deafness, a cleft palate, or brain injury.
Childhood-onset Fluency Disorder
Childhood-onset fluency disorder is also known as stuttering. It occurs when a child’s speech is impacted in ways that interfere with normal fluency and pattern of speech. It can include:
- Interrupted speech (known as speech blocks)
- Prolonging sounds
- Repeating sounds or syllables
The disturbance causes anxiety or limitations in social, academic, or work functioning. Although there can be the development of adult-onset fluency disorder, for this specific condition, the onset needs to be in the early developmental period and not due to a medical or neurological condition.
Unspecified Communication Disorder
Unspecified communication disorder applies to children who exhibit some of the symptoms that are characteristic of other CDs. However, children with unspecified communication disorder don’t meet the exact diagnostic criteria of any of the other communication disorders.
Signs and Symptoms of Language & Communication Disorder
Speech disorder symptoms
Symptoms of speech disorders include:
- repeating words, vowels, or sounds
- difficulty making sounds, even when the person knows what they want to say
- elongating or stretching words
- adding, omitting, or substituting words or sounds
- jerky head movements or excessive blinking while talking
- frequently pausing while talking
Language disorder symptoms
Symptoms of language disorders include:
- overusing fillers such as “um” and “uh” because of the inability to recall words
- knowing and using fewer words than their peers
- trouble understanding concepts and ideas
- difficulty learning new words
- problems using words and forming sentences to explain or describe something
- saying words in the wrong order
- difficulty understanding instructions and answering questions
Hearing disorder symptoms
Symptoms of hearing disorders include:
- being behind their peers in terms of oral communication
- asking others to repeat what they said in a slower, clearer manner
- talking louder than is typical
- muffled speech and other sounds
- withdrawal from social settings and conversations
- difficulty understanding words, especially in noisy environments
CAPD disorder symptoms
Symptoms of CAPD include:
- difficulty localizing sounds
- difficulty understanding words that people say too fast or against a noisy background
- problems understanding and following rapid speech
- difficulty learning songs
- lack of musical and singing skills
- difficulty learning a new language
- problems paying attention
- getting easily distracted
Causes of Language and Communication Disorders
Communication disorders may be developmental. Or they can be caused by:
- Physical problems such as a problem in brain development
- Exposure to poisons (toxins) during pregnancy, such as street drugs or lead
- Gene problems
Treatment of Language and Communication Disorders
Communications treatment may include one or more of the following types of interventions:
- Speech Therapy to help children learn new vocabulary, organize their thoughts and beliefs, and correct grammatical or word errors
- Behavior Therapy designed to increase children’s use of desirable communication behaviors, decrease their unwanted problem behaviors and use of maladaptive coping strategies, and to promote their development of useful interpersonal skills. Changes occur via a program of systematic reward and reinforcement. For example, children may be encouraged to use mnemonic strategies (adaptive coping behavior) to help them remember facts relevant to their school performance.
- Some clinicians may also recommend the use of Stimulant Medications as a treatment for any impulsivity or hyperactivity symptoms that may be present. This is a variation on a common intervention typically used for treating ADHD, which you may read about more in our ADHD topic center.
- Environmental Modification can also be an important part of treatment for communication disorders. For example, children with communication disorders can be given extra time during school-based discussions or oral test situations to more adequately formulate responses.
Success rates for communication disorder treatments based on methods like those just described are typically reported to be high, with around 70% of treated children benefiting. Follow-up treatment is sometimes necessary when relapses occur.
