Speech pathologySpeech pathology is a field in which people are trained to recognize and treat through speech therapy various speech disorders. Speech disorders are disorders related to production of normal speech. They are also called speech impediments and include all disorders related to normal speech such as
stuttering, apraxia, lisps, clutering, dysprosody and such. People who for some reason or the other are unable to speak at all are considered mute. In all only about 5% to 10% of the total population of the earth has completely normal speech patterns which do not have any sort o speech disorders. The causes of speech disorders are varied and in most cases unknown. The known causes of impairment in speech include;
hearing loss, brain injury, carnial tumors, mental retardation, dementia and Alzheimer’s may also produce speech disorders. drug abuse and certain physical ailments in children such as clef lip and palate have also been implicated. Speech therapists are trained through specialized courses in college to recognize various speech pathologies and then through speech therapy to rectify them. Speech disorders include disorder such as dysprosody. It is characterized by alterations in intensity and timing the speech. That is rhythm, cadency and connotations of the words differ as a person suffering from dysprosody continues to speak. The cause of this disorder is mostly related to some sort of a neurological disorder mostly cerbro vascular accidents, carnioencephalic traumas, and certain forms of tumors. Speech sound disorder, is a disorder in which the person is unable to produce specific speech patterns, and this sort of disorder is further divided into
articulation disorders called phonetic disorders and phonemic disorders. The phonetic disorders include difficulty in learning to produce sounds and people suffering do not always have to the correct pronunciation of words. Whereas phonemic disorders are learning disorders in which the patient is unable to make a sound distinction of words and as a result is unable to pronounce them correctly. Sometimes people suffering from speech sound disorders may have a mixed form of disorder in which both components of phonemic and phonetic maybe combined.
Another disorder of speech is known as apraxia. This is mostly a condition caused by a cerebrovascular stroke or in certain neurological conditions may be developmental. This disorder involves a patient rearranging alphabets of a particular word to produce an altogether different sounding word. The production of words is difficult and requires a considerable amount of effort on the part of the patient. Scientists have now come to the conclusion that childhood apraxia is not physically the same condition as acquired apraxia even though the basic characteristics of the disease are very similar. Voice disorders are often
physical impairments that involve the functioning of the larynx or the voice box as it is also known. Dysartria is another speech disorder emanating from a preceding or ongoing neurological affliction. It is most commonly found in people suffering from diseases such as ALS, parkinsons disease, and cerebral palsy other inorganic causes such as surgical accidents and head or neck injuries may also precipitate symptoms of dysarthria.
