Speech and Language disorders

Description of Communication Disorders

Language disorder- the student may demonstrate difficulty understanding instruction and/or in verbal or written expression.

Articulation disorder- the student may have difficulty producing particular speech sounds.

Fluency disorder- the student may have difficulty with the rate or rhythm of speech. He/She may repeat words, phrases, parts of words or sounds in words or may seem to "get stuck" on words or sounds.

Voice disorder- the student may demonstrate a voice difference including hoarseness, nasality, denasality, pitch, or intensity that is inappropriate for his/her age. Voice therapy cannot be recommended without a medical referral to rule out an organic cause of the disorder.

Auditory processing disorder- the student with processing difficulties may be easily distracted and have difficulty staying on task and/or following directions. He/she may be successful in a 1:1 setting but have great difficulty performing well in a group. Such difficulties may be the result of a weakness in auditory discrimination, auditory association, auditory memory, auditory figure ground, auditory closure, sound/symbol association, and/or sound blending.

 Pragmatic language disorder-   Pragmatic language is frequently referred to as social language. It includes the ability to understand the "unwritten rules" of conversation and the ability to "read" other's nonverbal signals.