Speech or Language Impairment

What is a Speech or
Language Impairment?
Whats
Inside?
Causes
Prevention
Characteristics
Instructional Strategies
Effects on Adolescents
Effects on Adults
Current Trends

A communication disorder such as

stuttering, impaired articulation, a
language impairment, or a voice
impairment that adversely affects a childs
educational performance.

Causes of Speech or Language Impairment

Speech and language disorders refer to
problems in communication and related
areas such as oral motor function.
Some causes of speech and language
disorders include hearing loss,
neurological disorders, brain injury,
mental retardation, drug abuse, physical
impairments such as cleft lip or palate,
and vocal abuse or misuse. Frequently,
however, the cause is unknown.
Some of the causes of speech and language
disorders are related to hearing loss, short
memory span, cerebral palsy and other
neuromuscular disorders, severe head
injuries, stroke, viral diseases, certain
drugs, physical impairments such as cleft
lip or palate, and inadequate speech and
language models in the home
environment.

The majority of voice disorders in children

usually result from frequent vocal abuse
associated with excessive throat clearing,
coughing screaming, or yelling. This abuse
can cause inflammation of the larynx
(vocal cords), or the formation of nodules
and polyps, which are small growths, on
the vocal cords.
Allergies, smoking, and the consumption
of alcoholic beverages are other factors
that may adversely affect the larynx (vocal
cords) resulting in varying degrees of voice
disorder.

Characteristics of
Speech and Language
Impairments
Speech Impairments
Articulation disorders are errors in the
production of speech sounds that may be
related to anatomical or physiological
limitations in the skeletal, muscular, or
neuromuscular support for speech production.
These disorders include Omissions.
Substitutions, and Distortions

Prevention of
Speech or
Language
Impairments
-Talk, read, and play with your child
every day.
-Children learn sounds and words by
hearing and seeing them.
-Take care of your childs teeth and
mouth.
-Have your childs hearing checked.
-Have your childs speech screened at a
local clinic or school.
-Give your child time to talk.
-Try not to interrupt your child while he
or she is speaking.
-Dont drink or use drugs while you are
pregnant
-Be sure that your child uses a helmet
and seat belt to prevent accidents that
cause brain injury

Fluency disorders are difficulties with the

rhythm and timing of speech characterized by
hesitations, repetitions, or prolongations of
sounds, syllables, words, or phrases.
Common fluency disorders include:
-Stuttering: rapid-fire repetitions of consonant
or vowel sounds especially at the beginning of
words, prolongations, hesitations,
interjections, and complete verbal blocks
-Cluttering: excessively fast and jerky speech
Voice disorders are problems with the quality
or use of one's voice resulting from disorders in
the larynx. Voice disorders are characterized
by abnormal production and/or absences of
vocal quality, pitch, loudness, resonance,
and/or duration.

Characteristics Continued
Language Impairments
There are five basic areas of language
impairments: phonological disorders,
morphological disorders, semantic disorders,
syntactical deficits, and pragmatic difficulties.
Phonological disorders are defined as the
abnormal organization of the phonological
system, or a significant deficit in speech
production or perception.

Current
Trends

Morphological disorders are defined as

difficulties with morphological inflections
(inflections on nouns, verbs, and adjectives
that signal different kinds of meanings).

The use of technology in

assisting students with
Speech and Language
Impairments is increasing,
and students are able to be
included in general
education settings with the
use of these technologies.

Semantic disorders are characterized by poor

vocabulary development, inappropriate use of
word meanings, and/or inability to
comprehend word meanings.
Syntactic deficits are characterized by
difficulty in acquiring the rules that govern
word order and others aspects of grammar
such as subject-verb agreement. Typically,
these students produce shorter and less
elaborate sentences with fewer cohesive
conjunctions than their peers.
Pragmatic difficulties are characterized as
problems in understanding and using
language in different social contexts. These
students may lack an understanding of the
rules for making eye contact, respecting
personal space, requesting information, and
introducing topics.

Instructional Strategies
As with all students who receive special
education services, collaboration of a multidisciplinary team is necessary.
Speech-language pathologists provide a
variety of professional services aimed at
helping people develop effective
communication skills. These services may
include:
-Helping children with articulation
disorders to learn proper production of
speech sounds
-Helping children who stutter to speak more
fluently
-Assisting children with voice disorders to
improve their voice quality
-Helping individuals with aphasia to relearn
speech and language skills
-Assisting individuals who have difficulty
swallowing as a result of illness, surgery,
stroke, or injury
-Evaluating, selecting, and developing
augmentative and alternative
communication systems
-Enhancing communication effectiveness
The general education teacher should work
with the speech-language pathologist to
incorporate strategies to help the student
generalize strategies mastered in speech
therapy. The general education and special
education teacher should both collaborate
with the speech-language pathologist for
interventions and teaching strategies.

Effects of Disability
Effects on Adolescents:
Students with language deficits are at
higher risk for antisocial behaviors,
behavior problems, emotional disabilities;
students may have difficulty forming
relationships due to their speech/language
difficulties.

Effects on Adults:
Adults may have a difficult time
communicating in public due to their
speech/language impairment-this may
cause lack of employment due to social
issues, and adults can work with speech
language pathologists to help remedy
these issues. As students, transition
plans should be put into place to help
them to transition to adulthood with a
speech or language impairment.

Online Resources
http://projectidealonline.org/speechLanguageImpairments.
php
http://www.napcse.org/exceptionalchildren/speechandlang
uageimpairments.php
http://www.asha.org/uploadedFiles/PreventingSpeechandL
anguageDisorders.pdf

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