Speech and Language Disorders
Speech and language disorders can affect your child's ability to form sounds or words, to understand conversations and to express ideas. Types of disorders include:
Language impairments or delays
Children with language impairments or delays have trouble understanding spoken or written messages (receptive language), using words or symbols to communicate thoughts (expressive language), or using language in a socially appropriate manner (pragmatics).
Speech disorders
Children with speech disorders have difficulty producing sounds, words and phrases clearly and fluently. This can be due to immature development, a structural weakness or neurological impairment.
Common speech deficits include:
- Articulation (inability to consistently produce sounds and words)
- Stuttering (repetitions of sounds, prolonging sounds in a word, or trouble initiating speech)
- Voice disorders (hoarse or harsh voice quality from vocal abuse, or voice quality affected by too much or too little airflow through the nose when speaking)
- Deficits from developmental, medical or neurological conditions (conditions that place children at risk for speech deficits)
Conditions that increase risk for speech deficits include:
- Autism
- Brain tumors
- Cerebral palsy
- Cleft lip and palate
- Developmental delay
- Genetic syndromes
- Head injury
- Hearing impairment
- Learning disability
- Intellectual disability
- Prematurity
- Tracheostomy
