Introduction to Speech Disorders: Speech is how we say sounds and words. People with speech problems may:

• not say sounds clearly
• have a hoarse or raspy voice
• repeat sounds or pause when speaking, called stuttering

Speech Disorder:

An Impairment of the speech sounds, fluency or voice called Speech Disorder.

Classification of Speech disorders:

• Fluency Disorders
• Voice & Resonance disorders
• Motor Speech Disorders

Fluency Disorders:

Someone whose speech habitually shows abnormal interruptions in the form of hesitations, repetitions, or prolongations may be diagnosed as having a fluency disorder.

Types of Fluency disorders:

• Stuttering – Stuttering also called stammering or childhood onset fluency disorder. This involves frequent and significant problem with speech fluency and the flow of sound. If one has stuttering they may repeat prolong a word, syllable or consonant/vowel sound. Or they may pause during speech than usual.
• Cluttering – Cluttering is a fluency disorder characterized by a rapid and irregular speaking rate, ecessive disfluencies and often other symptoms such as language or phonology error and attention.

Causes of Fluency disorder:

• Underlaying motor problems
• Stress / Emotional disturbance
• Difficulty in planning sequence in speech
• Poor co-ordination with the onset of voice with breathing an sound production for speech.

Voice & Resonance disorders:

A voice disorder occurs when voice quality, pitch, and loudness differ or are inappropriate for an individual’s age, gender, cultural background, or geographic location.

Types of Voice & Resonance disorders:

• Laryngitis – When one’s vocal cords swell when may be diagnosed as having a fluency disorder. It makes voice “Horse”.
• Functional Dysphonia – Voice instability, Fatigue hoarse / rough voice are the main symptoms of Functional dysphonia. There are two types of Functional dysphonia:
  • Hypofunctional dysphonia – Results from incomplete closure of the vocal cords.
  • Hyperfunctional dysphonia – Results from overuse of the laryngeal muscle.
• Puberphonia – It is a condition in men. It is functional voice disorder that is characterized by habitual use of a high pitched voice after puberty. Hence resulting in a ‘falsetto’ voice.
• Hyponasal Speech – It is the sound of speech that results from too little air escaping through the nose. It caused due to abnormal resonance in the voice.

Motor Speech Disorders:

Motor speech disorders are a class of speech disorders that disturb the body’s natural ability to speak due to neurologic impairments. These neurologic impairments make it difficult for individuals with motor speech disorders to plan, program, control, coordinate, and execute speech productions.

Types of Motor Speech disorders:

• Articulation disorder – The inability to produce sounds correctly in speech called Articulation disorder. E.g. SODA (Substitution, Omission, Distortion, Addition).
• Dyspraxia (Childhood development disorder) – Searching or “groping” movements noted during attempts to produce speech sounds. Child can produce some sounds at “volitional” or deliberate production may be more difficult than spontaneous production. Sound error are inconsistent.
• Dysarthria – Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder in which the muscles that are used to produce speech are damaged, paralyzed, weakened. This makes the person difficult to control one’s articulators and difficult to form and pronounce words.

References:

⇒ https://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/
⇒ https://www.asha.org/Practice-Portal/Clinical-Topics/Voice-Disorders/
⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_speech_disorders
⇒ Speech Correction – Charles Van Riper (Book)

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Introduction to Speech Disorders