Welcome to Mrs. MacKenzie's
Speech and Language Web page
What are Speech and Language Disorders?
Speech and language disorders are inabilities of individuals to understand and/or appropriately use the speech and language systems of society. Such disorders may range from simple sound repetitions or occasional nonparticipation to the complete absence of the ability to use speech and language for communication.
How many persons have speech and language disorders?
In 1995, approximately 46 million people in the United States of all ages, races, and gender experienced or lived with some type of communication disorder. Of these, 14 million individuals had a speech, voice, or language disorder.
(National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (1995) Research in human communication (NIH Publication No 92-3317) Bethesda, MD)
Each year roughly 400,00 Americans have a stroke; of these, approximately 20 % develop aphasia.
-There are more than 1 million persons with aphasia in the U.S.
-There are 30,000 Americans who have undergone surgery for laryngeal cancer and an estimated 12,600 new cases are discovered annually.
It is estimated that 3 million Americans stutter. Most begin to stutter at an early age, but occurs most frequently in young children between the ages of 2 and 6 who are developing language. One child in 30 goes through a period of stuttering that can last for 6 months or longer.
-Articulation disorders constitute the most numerous of all speech disorders. About 3 out of 5 of all speech and language disorders are related to articulatory problems.
- Phonological disorders affect an estimated 10 % of children in the first grade.
- More than 5 million individuals from racial/ethnic, multiculturalism populations have a speech, language, or hearing disorder.
-Speech disorders affect up to15 % of preschoolers, and 6% of children in grades 1 through 12.
-Language disorders affect up to 3% of the preschool population and about 1% of the school age population.
-Nearly 6 million children under age 18 have speech or language disorders.
What are some types of speech and language disorders?
Speech disorders may include:
-Fluency disorder - an interruption in the flow or rhythm of speech characterized by hesitations, repetitions, or prolongations of nouns, syllables, words, or phrases.
-Articulation disorder - difficulties with the way sounds are formed and strung together, usually characterized by substituting one sound for another (wabbit for rabbit), omitting a sound (han for hand) and distorting a sound (ship for sip).
-Voice disorder - characterized by inappropriate pitch (too high, too low, never changing or interrupted by breaks); quality (harsh, hoarse, breathy, or nasal); loudness, resonance, and duration.
Language disorders may include:
-Aphasia - the loss of speech and language abilities generally resulting from stroke.
- Delayed language - characterized by a marked slowness in the development of language skills necessary for expressing and understanding thoughts and ideas.
How can a speech-language pathologist help persons with speech and language disorders?
-Help individuals with articulation disorders to learn proper production of speech sounds.
-Assist individuals with voice disorders to develop proper control of the vocal and respiratory systems for correct voice production.
-Assist individuals who stutter to cope with their disorder and to increase the amount of fluent speech.
- Assist individuals with aphasia to relearn language and speech skills such as word recall and the ability to produce speech sounds.
- Counsel individuals with speech and language disorders to understand their disorder and to achieve more fluent communication in educational, social, and vocational settings.
-Advise individuals and the community on how to prevent speech and language disorders.
- help individuals understand the types and severity of communication disorders.
Adapted from "What are Speech and Language Disorders" at www.asha.org
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