Communication Disorders
Do you have any experience of trying to communicate an idea that others couldn’t understand? Or, have you ever felt that people are not able to understand what you’re speaking?If yes, then you can imagine the experiences of people with disturbances in speech and language. What is difficult to imagine, however, is the emotional pain and frustration that people living with a communication disorder confront on a daily basis, during every single interaction!
What are communication disorders?
Communication disorders are conditions characterized by impairment in the expression or understanding of language. There can be several different kinds of communication disorders. A few of them are:-
- Expressive language disorder
- Mixed receptive-expressive disorder
- Phonological disorder
- Stuttering
What is Expressive Language Disorder?
Expressive language disorder is a developmental disorder characterized by obvious problems of verbal expression. Children with this disorder do not have the ability to express themselves in ways appropriate to their age. For example, they may do the following things frequently:-
- Such children may use a language style that includes using limited and faulty vocabulary.
- They tend to speak in short sentences with simplified grammatical structures.
- They may also omit critical words or phrases and put words together in peculiar order.
- A child/person with this disorder may, for example, always use the present tense and refer to activities of the previous day by saying, “I have a good time yesterday.”
Get Mind Solace’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
For some children, expressive language disorders are developmental conditions in which speaking abilities occur at a later age than average and progress more slowly than average. Others acquire this disorder, perhaps as a result of a medical illness or a neurological problem resulting from a head trauma.
How do we define Mixed Receptive-Expressive Disorder?
Children with mixed receptive-expressive language disorder have difficulty in both expressing and understanding certain kinds of words or phrases, such as:-
- Directions- Even simple directions might confuse an individual with mixed receptive-expressive language disorder. An example of such a direction might be, “ Take the third door on the right.”
- Basic vocabulary- The simplest of words confuse children living with more severe forms of this communication disorder
- Entire sentences- These can also be confusing for them in case the disorder is more severe.
- When speaking, children with this disorder show some of the same communication problems as children with expressive language disorder.
Mixed receptive-expressive language disorder can also be either developmental or acquired.
What is Phonological Disorder?
The expressive difficulties of some people are not characterized by their inability to understand or express language . Rather, their difficulties are specific to their speech. A person with phonological disorder substitutes, omits, or incorrectly articulates speech sounds. For example, a child may use a t sound for the letter k, saying “tiss” rather than “kiss.” People often regard the mispronunciations of children as cute. Nevertheless, these childhood speech patterns are likely to cause academic problems as the child grows older and may evoke ridicule from peers.
How can we define stuttering?
Stuttering is a communication disorder which involves a disturbance in the normal fluency and pattern of speech. This disturbance involves sound repetitions and prolongations, broken words, the blocking out of sounds, word substitutions to avoid problematic words, and words expressed with an excess of tension.
Conclusion
A communication disorder have a major impact on the life as well as mental health of those who live with it. In case you know someone who suffers from such a condition, connect them to a good speech therapist as well as other professionals who can help them. Besides that, taking the help of a good mental health professional will also be beneficial. This will help them cope with the Psychological impacts of the disorder. The Counselors at Mind Solace can help people living with any communication disorder attain better mental health so that they can live a happier life.
