COMMUNICATION DISORDERS

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COMMUNICATION DISORDERS

• Characteristics and Causes

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Introduction
Communication Disorders

• What is a communication disorder?
• What are the different kinds of communication
  disorders?
• What are the causes of communication disorders?

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What is a communication disorder?
Communication Disorders

• Speech and language disorders refer to problems
  in communication and related areas such as oral
  motor function. These delays and disorders range
  from simple sound substitutions to the inability
  to understand or use language or use the
  oral-motor mechanism for functional speech and
  feeding.
• National Information Center for Children and
  Youth with Disabilities (2000)

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What are the different kinds of communication
disorders?
Communication Disorders

• Language Delay
• Receptive Language
• Expressive Language
• Aphasia

• Apraxia
• Articulation
• Dysfluency
• Voice Disorders
• Orofacial Defects
• Dysarithria

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Language Delay
Communication Disorders

• Description
• Younger students are at least 6 months behind in
  reaching language milestones.
• Have problems with word retrieval, organizational
  skills, auditory processing and social
  communication.
• Causes
• Slow maturation, brain damage, hearing
  impairment, mental retardation and emotional
  disturbance.

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Receptive Language
Communication Disorders

• Description
• Consistently fails to understand oral
  instructions even when given individually.
• Causes
• Generally unknown but theories suggest it may be
  associated with genetics, malnutrition or brain
  damage.

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Expressive Language
Communication Disorders

• Description
• Older individuals have difficulty using language
  and often start sentences 4 or 5 times but cannot
  be understood.
• Refuses to speak out in class.
• Receptive language and expressive language are
  often closely related.
• Causes
• Generally unknown but theories suggest it may be
  associated with genetics, malnutrition or brain
  damage.

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Aphasia
Communication Disorders

• Description
• Aphasia is an impairment in understanding and/or
  formulating complex, meaningful elements of
  language.
• Student cannot understand speech or produce
  meaningful sentences.
• Causes
• Damage to the temporal lobe or higher up in the
  frontal lobe.
• Can occur at birth or through an accident later
  in life. Stroke is a major cause.

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Apraxia
Communication Disorders

• Description
• General impairment of speech motor movements.
• Verbal apraxia characterised by slow muscle
  movements for speech sounds.(see hypotonia,
  sensory integration disorder).
• Oral apraxia associated with movements that are
  not speech related.(e.g., blowing, puckering,
  licking food from the lips).
• Motor apraxia - involves hand or whole body
  movement.
• Causes
• Both acquired and developmental causes.
• Acquired - can result from stroke, head injury,
  brain tumours, toxins, or infections.
• Developmental origins unknown, general
  incoordination evident

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Articulation
Communication Disorders

• Description
• Children omit certain sounds, example say pay for
  play.
• Children substitute one sound for another, ex.
  wabbit for rabbit.
• Cannot produce the s or z sound. This one is
  quite common.
• Causes
• Usually structural/physical damage such as cleft
  palate, dental abnormalities, cerebral palsy,
  mental retardation and inner ear hearing loss.

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Dysfluency/ Stuttering
Communication Disorders

• Description
• People of various ages stutter, but persists to
  express ideas.
• Stuttering comes in many different forms from
  mild to extreme.
• Causes
• No single cause but studies are being done on
  stuttering and the neurological coordination of
  speech.
• Some incidences have occurred from strokes.

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Voice Disorders
Communication Disorders

• Description
• Have problems with pitch, quality, duration and
  intensity.
• Student may speak slowly and softly in a husky
  voice.

• Causes
• Poor physical health,
• physical anomalies,
• neurological control problems,
• defects in hearing their own voice,

• glandular conditions, personality disturbances,
• poor role models of,
• poor habits of vocalization.

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Orafacial defects (Cleft Palate)
Communication Disorders

• Description
• Opening in the oral cavity, lips, or nasal
  cavity.
• All vowels and most consonants are nasalised.
• Causes
• Mostly developmental origins.

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Dysarthria
Communication Disorders

• Description
• Distorted speech due to paralysis of speaking
  muscles.
• Speech is often at a whisper and is very slurred
  and sounds like they are talking out their nose.
• Causes
• Damage to the brain or nerves.
• Incidences
• One in 600 is born with some kind of cleft palate.

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Incidences
Communication Disorders
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Implications for Classrooms
Communication Disorders

• Role of Teacher
• Role of Speech Pathologist
• Role of Classroom Volunteers

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Implications for Classrooms
Communication Disorders

• Language delay What teacher can do?

• Provide motivation, stimulation, and good and
  attainable models, as well as reinforcement for
  improvement.
• Hold back any negative indications that might
  lead children to hold back from expressing ideas.

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Implications for Classrooms
Communication Disorders

• Receptive language What teacher can do?

• Give clear and simply instructions
• Simplify your language
• Use visual cues and hand gestures
• Ask appropriate questions, thinking questions
  requiring longer answers. Avoid questions with
  one word answers.

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Implications for Classrooms
Communication Disorders

• Voice Disorders What teacher can do?

• Talk to them the way they should be talking and
  model appropriate methods of speaking.

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Implications for Classrooms
Communication Disorders

• Dysarithria What teacher can do?

• Face the child when you are communicating with
  them.
• Encourage the child to use short phrases.
• Allow the child time to speak.

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Implications for Classrooms
Communication Disorders

• Dysarithria (Contd) What teacher can do?

• Ask the child to repeat only the words you did
  not understand (i.e.. "You want to wear what?")
  Encourage gestures, facial expressions and
  writing as well as speaking.
• Carry on the conversation even if some words
  are unclear. The basic message is what is most
  important.

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Implications for Classrooms
Communication Disorders

• Aphasia What teacher can do?

• Provide orientation reminders as to what time it
  is, the date, what they should be doing, etc.
• Keep an eye on students as are frequently
  confused, and if this occurs they should not be
  left alone. It could be dangerous they could hurt
  themselves or others.

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The End
Communication Disorders