slide presentation of disorder in children

1. Communication Disorders
Definition
Communication disorders are:
• Disorders of language and or speech.
• Impairs the ability to communicate effectively.
Communication is the transfer of information [ideas, facts, feelings & desires] and requires a sender and
a receiver
Communication involves encoding [sending the message in an understandable form], and decoding
[receiving and understanding the message]. Language and speech are tools used for communication.
A communication disorder is an impairment in the ability to receive, send, process, and comprehend
concepts or verbal, nonverbal and graphic symbol systems [The American Speech-Language- Hearing
Association, 1993]
• A communication disorder may range from mild to severe.
• It may be developmental or acquired
• An individual can have one or several kinds of communication disorders.
Language is communicated through an arbitrary system of symbols. These symbols are governed by
certain predetermined rules that determine meaning.
- House [English]
- Casa [Spanish]
- Maison [French]
- Hus [Danish]
- Haus [German]
Communication differences: A communication difference is not a disorder. These are related to dialect
and the variations of a symbol system used by a group of individuals that reflects and is determined by
shared regional, social, or cultural/ethnic factors. For example,
- The houses [English]
- De ouse dem [patois]
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2. - The boys [English]
- De bwoy dem[patois]
Communication Disorders and Language
Language disorders: Difficulty in understanding and or using language whether spoken, written or as
symbol systems. Language has five components; these are phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics
and pragmatics. Language disorders can be demonstrated as problems in one or more of the following
components of language:
• Phonology- governs speech sounds. Is concerned with how individual sounds make up words
e.g. /b/e/t/ and /b/e/g/
• Morphology- governs the organization of words. How adding or deleting parts of words change
their meaning e.g. verb tense, suffixes, plurals [sit/sat; uncooked/cooked, pen/pens]
• Syntax – governs how words join together to make meaningful sentence; relates to grammar
e.g. We went to the party last week.
• Semantics –governs the meaning attached to words and sentences e.g. Cats eat mice.
The panda eats, shoots and leaves [what’s right & wrong here?]
• Pragmatics – governs the social use of language. Focus is on functional use rather than on
mechanics
Communication Disorders and Speech
Speech disorders: Difficulty in the articulation of speech sounds, fluency, and or voice
• Articulation –atypical production of speech sounds characterized by omissions, substitutions,
additions, distortions that may interfere with intelligibility
• Fluency- an interruption in the flow of speaking results in atypical rate, rhythm & repetition of
sounds, syllables, words and phrases
• Voice – abnormal production and or absence of voice quality, pitch, loudness, resonance and or
duration which is inappropriate for an individual’s age and or sex
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3. Types of language disorders:
- Phonological disorders: These include the omitting, distortion or substitution of sounds in words
e.g. boo for blue, pot for put, tee for teeth, wubba for rubber. Maybe unable to identify the
three phonemes in the word ‘dog’
- Morphological and Syntactical disorders: These tend to occur together. May have problems with
using suffixes e.g. making plural by adding ‘s’ or present continuous tense by adding íng’ or
difficulty making the past tense e.g. hided instead of hid, bided instead of bought goed instead
of went or difficulty with making contractions, also may leave out important grammatical
markers [a, an, the]
- Semantic disorders: The child may have difficulty in learning or remembering new words, or
using new words appropriately. May have difficulty in making sense of stories, or retelling it so
that it makes sense to the listener.
- Pragmatic disorders: The child might not understand how to use language in social situations.
Might say something offensive or inappropriate e.g. “You sure are fat!”
Communication and noise
Physical noise: Interference that both the speaker and the listener may experience. Physical noise
affects the message being transmitted e.g. passing cars or planes, horns, children
Physiological noise: Physical barriers within the speaker or the listener e.g. hearing loss, articulation
problems.
Psychological noise: Cognitive or mental interference e.g. biases and prejudices, anger, hate.
Semantic noise: Assignment of different meanings by speaker and listener e.g. people speaking different
languages, use of jargons
Attributes of language:
- A shared system of verbal symbols and rules (James, 1990)
- Language is learned
- Language is a rule governed symbol system for communicating meaning through a shared code
of arbitrary symbols (Kuder 1997)
Properties of language:
- Language is arbitrary
- Language is human
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4. - Language is hierarchic
- Language changes to outwit change
- Language is embedded in gestures
- Language is culturally transmitted
The required competencies for learning language:
• Phonological development – understanding phonemes, the smallest unit of sound that
distinguish meaning.
• Morphological development – understanding the smallest unit of meaning in a language.
• Syntactic development- understanding the rules that govern how words are combined
• Semantic development- understanding the meanings of words in a language
• Pragmatic development- understanding when and how to use language
The components of language: Language has three components
1. Form: This includes morphology, phonology and syntax.
Morphology: governs word formation. Morphemes show the infinite possibilities of a language –
e.g. by adding affixes to words thousands of new words can be created from root words.
Morphemes can be free [I and a]or bound [ed, s, es]
Phonology: governs the sounds and their combinations in words signalling a difference in
meaning between e.g. bat and pat
Syntax: governs word order and sentence construction e.g. My mother is picking up me today.
2. Content: Semantics: the meaning of words and involves understanding language [receptive]as
well as the appropriate choice of language to transfer meaning [expressive]
3. Use: Pragmatics: the appropriate social use of language. Pragmatics is knowing what to say,
and how to say it in accordance with social norms.
Speech
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5. • Speech is the physical production of sound to communicate meaning through the
neuromuscular control of the structures of the vocal tract (McLaughlin 1998)
• Speech can be said to be the coordination of respiration, phonation, resonation and articulation
• Speech can be considered an overlaid function because it uses the same structures used for
breathing.
The speech process involves:
Respiration – the air stream, the lungs, and air passages are involved.
Phonation – the sound source and involves vibration of the vocal folds.
Resonation – provided by the mouth, nose and throat. These modify the phonemes as they pass
through the structures.
Articulation – provided by the structures of the teeth, lips, tongue and palate. These form the
phonemes.
Speech production: Speech is produced when the lungs pushes air out of the body through the mouth
and sometimes the nose. The air stream from the lungs passes through the windpipe, larynx and mouth
and is modified as it connects with the palate, tongue, teeth, jaw and lips.
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6. Speech disorders: when speech is sufficiently deviant from normal that it attracts attention and
adversely affect communication.
Speech disorders include:
-errors of speech production or usage [articulation]
-abnormalities in pitch, intensity and quality [voice]
-deviation in the flow of utterances [fluency]
Articulation disorders: Represent the largest category of all speech disorders. Articulation disorders are
characterized by abnormality in the speech-sound production process; resulting in inaccurate execution
of the speaking act.
Articulation disorders include:
-omissions [teet for teeth; im for him]
- additions [filim for film; Simit for Smith; cremination for cremation]
- substitutions [chuck for truck; zink for sink; jinks for drinks]
-distortions[swimps for shrimps; free for three]
Voice disorders: Characteristics of voice disorders include problems with: pitch, loudness and quality.
Voice disorders involve unusual or abnormal acoustical qualities in speech. Characteristics of an
unpleasant voice include a voice that is:
-harsh -too loud
-too gravely -too soft
- high pitched - too rough
Fluency disorders: these are disorders that affect the rate of speech.
Fluency disorders include:
- Cluttering: characterized by speech that is too rapid, disorganized and occasionally filled with
unnecessary words or unrelated insertions.
- Stuttering: characterized by a flow of speech that is abnormally interrupted by repetitions,
blocking, or prolongation of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases.
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7. Prevalence:
A high frequency disorder but establishing a prevalence of Communication Disorder is difficult because
they are varied, difficult to identify and may occur as part of another disability [ID, TBI, LD, autism]
10%-15% of preschool children and 6% of primary and secondary age children have a speech disorder
2%-3% of preschool children and 1% of school-age population have a language disorder.
Educational considerations:
The main considerations are:
1. Facilitate the social use of language.
2. Ask many questions and encourage students to answer in full sentences.
3. Encourage students to ask their own questions.
4. Teach literacy – develop a strong reading and writing programme to develop language in the
classroom. Develop both receptive (listening and reading) and expressive (speaking and writing).
To Recap: What are communication disorders?
• Communication disorders are disorders that affect a person’s ability to understand, and or use
language and or speech.
• Language disorders involve problems with:
-Form [phonology, morphology & syntax]
-Content [semantics]
-Use [pragmatics]
• Speech disorders involve problems with:
-Articulation [errors in speech, its production & usage]
-Voice [pitch, intensity and quality]
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8. -Fluency [deviation in the flow of speech, prosody]
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