Understanding Communication Delays and Speech Disorders in Children - Free Paper Example

Communication delay in a child can be observed in both language and speech impairment and retarded development. A child with delay in language can be saying the words well but only having the ability to put two words in order. On the other hand, a child with a delay in speech can be using both phrases and words to express the intended ideas but that is hard to understand (Beals et al., 2016). For a child with delay in communication, first, by the age of twelve months, the child is not able to use gestures to express his desires and pass a message across (Cummings, 2013). The gestures that should be used at the stage include waving bye-bye or pointing. It has been established scientifically that a child should be able to use gestures at age twelve while communicating.

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Besides, for a child with communication delay, at the age of eighteen months, he prefers to use gestures instead of vocalizations while communicating. It has been established that a child should be using vocals to communicate at age eighteen. Therefore, the failure of a child to vocalize can be an indicator of communication delay. Furthermore, the child having troubles imitating sounds at eighteen months indicates a sign of communication delay (Beals et al., 2016). The sounds to be imitated are the words uttered by his peers, parents, or any creature that makes the sound. Finally, at eighteen years, a child having trouble in understanding some simple verbal requests can be delayed in communication. The requests include greetings and calls to utter some words or sounds.

Moreover, at the age of two years, a child indicates signs of delayed communication if he can only imitate action or speech and does not produce phrases or words spontaneously. It is because, ideally and scientifically, a child at such a stage should be producing phrases and words spontaneously, failure to which indicates some retarded communication development (Beals et al., 2016).

Besides, if at the age of two years, a child only says some words or sounds repeatedly and cannot use oral language during communication of more than the immediate needs, he indicates some signs of communication delay. It is because, at such a stage, the child should use oral language in communication of at least the immediate needs. The child should also be able to follow some simple directions at two years of age, failure to which indicates communication delay (Cummings, 2013). Finally, at two years, the child having some unusual tone of voice such as nasal or raspy sounding shows communication delay. At such a stage, the child should be using the usual human tones in communication.

Speech Disorders

Speech disorders include apraxia, stuttering, and dysarthria. Starting with stuttering, it is a speech disorder interrupting with the flow of speech. It is characterized by repetitions that occur when the people repeat the sounds, words, and vowels involuntarily. Besides, there are prolongations where the person stretches or draws out certain words or sounds. Finally, there are blocks where people can know what they would want to say but have difficulties in making necessary speech sounds. Blocks can contribute to people feeling like their words have gotten stuck.

Besides, there is an apraxia speech disorder. It refers to brain damage impairing with the motor skills of a person. It can affect every part of the body. Therefore, apraxia of speech concerns the impairment of the motor skills affecting the ability of an individual to form sounds of speeches correctly, even if they know the words to be said (Beals et al., 2016). As such, it is characterized by distorting sounds, groping for sounds, making tone errors, and making errors that are inconsistent in speeches.

Finally, there is dysarthria. It happens when brain damage causes weakness of muscles in lips, face, tongue, chest, and throat, making speaking difficult. It is characterized by mumbling, slurred speech, soft speech, and difficulty moving the tongue.

Language Disorders

They are communication disorders that affect how people use and process languages. Expressive language disorder concerns where people are troubled passing message as they talk. A receptive language disorder is where people struggle to understand what other people are saying. Mixed receptive-expressive language issues are where people struggle in using and understanding language (Harrison, 2014). It affects language development and education since the person will have difficulty following instructions and learning reading and spelling.

Speech Pathologists and Children with Communication Disorders

For expressive communication disorder, a speech pathologist can help the child in learning new words alongside how to put them together to form phrases and sentences. Thus, the child can communicate effectively. For receptive communication disorders, a speech-language pathologist can help by teaching the child some new vocabulary alongside how to use the knowledge in following directions and answering questions (Harrison, 2014). For speech fluency disorder, a speech-language pathologist can teach the child the strategies of controlling the behavior hence increasing his fluency and intelligibility in speech (Harrison, 2014). Finally, for articulation disorder, the speech-language pathologist can teach the child how to produce some specific sound patterns that then increases his entire speech intelligibility.

References

Beals, K., Dahl, D. A., Fink, R. B., & Linebarger, M. C. (2016). Speech and language technology for language disorders.

Cummings, L. (2013). Communication Disorders. Palgrave Macmillan.

Harrison, A. E. (2014). Speech disorders: Causes, treatment and social effects. Hauppauge, N.Y: Nova Science.

LaPointe, L. L., Murdoch, B. E., & Stierwalt, J. A. G. (2010). Brain-based communication disorders.