Speech and language disorder

 SPEECH AND LANGUAGE DISORDER

 

Speech and language problems are the most common disability of childhood yet they are the least well detected. speech disorders and language disorders can occur separately or together. Speech disorders are deficits that may prevent speech from being produced at all, or result in speech that cannot be understood or is abnormal in some other way. Whereas, language disorders interfere with a child's ability to understand the code, to produce the code, or both. Speech-language impairment sometimes emerges during infancy with challenges in response to sound, atypical birth cries, or limited response to others and progresses through the toddler and preschool age with limited comprehension of spoken language and difficult interactions with peers and others as well as delays in producing first words and word combinations. 

  The etiology of most cases of speech-language impairments is unknown. But range of causes or origins includes anatomical abnormalities, cognitive deficits, faulty learning, genetic differences, hearing impairments, neurologic impairments, or physiologic abnormalities.Children with speech and language impairment are an under-representation of the broader occurrence of communication disorders,  especially considering the co-occurrence of communication disorders with other disabilities. 

                                                                                    The prevalence of communication disorders in India is found to be higher in comparison to that of developed countries. The study has revealed prevalence for communication disorders to be 6.07% in the rural part of India in a population size of 15,441. The study also revealed a higher proportion of the population to have speech language disorders (9.42%). Studies conducted in developed nations show prevalence of speech–language disorders to range from 0.5% to 7% and they noted prevalence to decrease with age.

Speech and language disorders can be prevented at various levels viz., primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. According to American Speech and Hearing Association Primary prevention refers to the “elimination or inhibition of the onset and development of communication disorder by altering susceptibility or reducing exposure for susceptible persons. Whereas, secondary prevention refers to the early detection and treatment of communication disorders. Tertiary prevention is defined as the reduction of a disability by attempting to restore effective functioning. Various kind of speech-therapytechniques are carried out to treat this disorder.

The consequences of untreated speech-language problems are significant and lead to behavioral challenges, mental health problems, reading difficulties, and academic failure including in-grade retention and high school dropout.