Communication is the process of expressing and receiving ideas through language, speech, and other means. Typical speech and language development follows predictable patterns through childhood. Speech disorders involve difficulties producing sounds, while language disorders involve challenges with comprehension, expression, or formulation of ideas. Communication disorders can be caused by brain injury, disease, lack of early stimulation, or other factors. Students with communication disorders are evaluated and teachers adapt instruction to support their needs through techniques like repetition, visual aids, and social skills training. Alternative communication systems can also help those unable to communicate verbally.

1. Communication
Disorder
Introduction to SPED
Deborah A. Homillano

2. What is Communication?
• Communication is the process by which
one individual expresses ideas, feelings,
opinions, or messages to others and
receives and understands ideas, feelings,
opinions, or messages from others.
• Language is a rule-governed system of
arbitrary symbols that stand for meaning.
• Speech is the physical production of that
system.
Taylor/Smiley/Richards,
Exceptional Students

3. • Typical speech development
– Follows a typical and predictable pattern and time table
– By the age of 8, children can produce nearly all the
consonants and vowels that make up the native
language.
– There is variation among children in the time of
acquisition.
• Speech disorders
– Articulation: production of individual or sequenced
sounds
• Substitutions, omissions, additions, and distortions
• If these problems interfere with peer interactions or
educational performance: REFER

4. • Speech and language disorders (often
associated with other disorders)
– Speech disorder refers to difficulty in
producing sounds (cleft palate).
– Language disorder refers to difficulty in
receiving, understanding, and formulating
ideas and information.
• Cultural diversity
– Difference does not always mean disorder.
– Dialects are various forms of language.

5. Communication Disorder
Speech
Disorder
Language
Disorder
Voice
Delayed
Conductive Hearing loss
Disorder
Language
Articulation
Aphasia &
Disorder
related
Sensorineural Hearing Loss
Auditory Nerve & Central Auditory
Nervous System Hearing Loss
Fluency
disorders
Disorder
Hearing Disorder
Functional Hearing Loss

6. – Apraxia of speech: motor speech disorder affecting
the planning of speech
• Difficulty with the voluntary, purposeful
movement of speech (stroke, tumor, head injury,
developmental)
• Can produce individual sounds but cannot
produce them in longer words or sentences
– Voice disorders: pitch, duration, intensity,
resonance, and vocal quality
– Fluency disorders: interruptions in the flow of
speaking
• Stuttering: frequent repetition and/or
prolongation of words or sounds

7. Speech or Language Disorder Causes
• Brain injury, abuse, cleft palate, birth
trauma
• Disease, malfunction of certain
organs
• Lack of stimulation in childhood and
psychological factors.

8. • Typical language development
– Language development is complex
– Depends on biological preparation, successful
nurturance, sensorimotor experiences, and linguistic
experiences
• Five components of language
– Phonology: the use of sounds to make meaningful
syllables and words
• Phonemes: individual speech sounds
– Morphology: the structure of words
• Morphemes: the smallest meaningful unit of speech (e.g., s)
– Syntax: the rules for putting together a series of words
to form sentences
– Semantics: word and sentence meanings for what is
spoken
– Pragmatics: social use of language

9. • Characteristics of language impairments
– Language disorders may be receptive, expressive,
or both.
– Language disorders may be related to another
disability or may be a specific language
impairment.
• Phonological disorders – difficulty in discriminating
differences in speech sounds or sound segments
• Morphological difficulties – problem using the structure
of words to get or give information (e.g., proper tenses)
• Syntactical errors – problem with the correct word
order in sentences that meaning is lost for listeners
• Semantic disorders – problems using words singly or
together in sentences
• Pragmatic disorders – problems in the social use of
language (e.g., eye contact, body language,
organization)

10. • Two types of speech and language disorders
– Organic: caused by an identifiable problem in the
neuromuscular mechanism of the person
(hereditary malformations, prenatal injuries, toxic
disturbances, tumors, traumas, seizures,
infectious diseases, muscular diseases)
– Functional: those with no identifiable origin
• Speech and language disorders can also be
classified according to when the disorder
began.
– Congenital: present at birth
– Acquired: occurs well after birth

11. How to Evaluate Students with
Disorder
• Speech assessment: speech pathologist uses a
standardized articulation test to measure
articulation, voice, and fluency problems.
• Voice evaluations: includes both quantitative
and qualitative measures (interviews and case
history)
• Fluency assessments: evaluated through a
conversation with the student and interview
with parents

12. • Three areas to be assessed relative to
language interactions in the classroom:
– The student’s ability to use language
effectively by speaking and listening tasks
– The teacher’s language
– The language requirements of the lessons
and textbooks
• Assessments for students who are bilingual or
multilingual
• Evaluation teams need to take a holistic view
of the student’s communication skills using
ecological assessments.

15. Hearing Impairment
• It refers to whether permanent or fluctuating
hearing impairment that adversely affects a
person’s communication performance.
• The ability to hear is an integral part of the
normal communication process. An impaired
ability to relate to sounds can result in social
isolation, depression, avoidance, and
diminished quality of life.

16. • Conductive hearing loss results from
dysfunction of the outer and/or middle ear.
Patients with conductive hearing loss
usually can understand (discriminate)
speech correctly but require louder
volumes of speech. Possible causes of
conductive hearing impairment include
cerumen impaction, presence of a foreign
body, tympanic membrane perforation,
otitis media, and otosclerosis.

17. • Sensorineural hearing loss results from
dysfunction of the inner ear (cochlea) or of
neural fibers of the eighth cranial nerve.
Patients with sensorineural hearing loss
usually have decreased speech
discrimination.
• Conditions causing sensorineural
impairment include excess noise, advanced
age (presbycusis), ototoxic drugs, viral or
bacterial illness, tumors, and cortical
lesions.

18. • A mixed hearing disorder involves
components of conductive and
sensorineural hearing loss. Central
hearing impairment results from
dysfunction of the central auditory
pathways (eg, tumors, demyelinating
disease, vascular damage).

19. The most common rehabilitative therapy for
hearing impairment is the hearing aid. Any person
with hearing difficulties that limit daily activities
should be considered a prospective candidate for
a hearing aid. A hearing aid evaluation should be
performed by a certified clinical audiologist. The
use of a hearing aid does not cure the
impairment, but it does improve the ability to
communicate effectively. Successful hearing aid
use is dependent on the patient's self-perceived
impairment, acceptance of the device, and desire
to use hearing amplification.

21. • Adapting Instruction
– Ask varied types of questions to encourage students’ selfexpression
– Expand student utterances by using modeling more
elaborate language
– Augment or alter classroom language by providing
statements that explain a student’s nonverbal behaviors
– Allow students opportunity to practice public verbalizations
• Augmenting Instruction
– Repetition of the curriculum
– Visual supports: graphic organizers, photographs, gestures,
sign language
– Direct instruction in social skills

22. • There are systems that helps to develop
communication abilities of individuals who cannot
meet their communication needs through gestures,
speaking, and/or writing.
• Ex. communication books, communication boards,
communication charts, mechanical/electrical voice
output, computers, etc.
– Using eyes to look at the symbol
– Touching the symbols with fingers
– Using a laser beam attached to the head
– Scanning
– Encoding

23. Thank you
for Listening!