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Speech disorders are fairly easy to recognize by a layperson. The speech may be difficult to understand, articulation may be unclear, it may sound ‘stuttered’ or fluency may be disrupted. Although most listeners tolerate speech disorders, individuals with speech problems typically do not like the fact that attention is drawn to their speech and may wish to obtain help from speech therapists.
Speech disorders refer to several conditions in which a person has difficulty communicating by mouth. Speech is one of the primary ways we communicate with those around us. It is an effective way to monitor normal growth and development as well as to identify potential problems.
Disfluencies are rhythm disorders that are usually characterized by the repetition of a sound, word or phrase. Stuttering is perhaps the most serious disfluency. Articulation deficiencies involve sounds made incorrectly or inappropriately. Voice disorders involve abnormalities in the quality, pitch and loudness of the sound.
There are many potential causes of speech impairment. The most common cause is mental retardation. Other causes may include:
* Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
* Autism
* Cerebral palsy
* Cleft palate
* Disorders of the palate
* Hearing impairment
* Learning disability
* Schizophrenia
* Vocal cord injury
However, in many cases the cause is unknown. Child abuse may also be a cause in some cases.
Delayed speech development is one of the common symptoms observed in developmentally delayed children. It occurs in five to 10 per cent of all children. Boys are three to four times as likely to have speech disorders as girls.
Symptoms
Disfluency:
* Repetition of sounds, words, or phrases after age 4
* Frustration with attempts to communicate
* Head jerking while talking
* Eye blinking while talking
* Embarrassment with speech
Articulation Deficiency:
* Unintelligible speech by age 3
* Leaves out consonants at the beginning of words by age 3
* Leaves out consonants at the end of words by age 4
* Persistent problems with articulation after age 7
* Leaves out sounds where they should occur
* Distorts sounds
* Substitutes an incorrect sound for a correct one
Voice disorders:
* Pitch deviations
* Deviations in the loudness and quality of the voice
* Stuttering is quite common
* Cluttering, a speech disorder that has similarities to stuttering.
* 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.
* Difficulty in producing specific speech sounds (most often certain consonant, such as ‘s’ or ‘r’) may be considered a speech sound disorder, and subdivided into Articulation Disorder (also called Phonetic Disorder) and Phonemic Disorder. Phonetic disorder is characterized by difficulty in learning to physically produce sounds, and is popularly referred to as ‘speech impediment’. Phonemic disorder is 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.
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.
Social effects of speech disorders
Suffering from a speech disorder can have negative social effects, especially among young children. Those with a speech disorder can be targets of bullying that can result in decreased self-esteem. As well, having a speech disorder can cause some sufferers to be shy and have poor public speaking skills.
Some of the famous people with speech impediments are:
* Humphrey Bogart, actor — lisp
* Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister — lisp, cluttering and stutter
* Claudius, Roman Emperor — stutter
* Elton John, singer/songwriter — lisp
* Marilyn Monroe, actress — stutter
* Barbara Walters, television personality — Rhotacism and lisp
* Bruce Willis, actor and director — stutter
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