Voice disorders

Alternative names

Articulation deficiency; Speech disorders; Dysfluency

Definition

Speech disorders include several speech-related problems that result in impaired or ineffective oral communication. Also see speech impairment.

Causes, incidence, and risk factors

Speech is one of the primary ways we communicate with our environment. It is also an effective way to monitor normal growth and development as well as to identify potential problems.

Dysfluencies are rhythm disorders that are usually characterized by the repetition of a sound, word, or phrase. Stuttering is, perhaps, the most serious dysfluency.

Articulation deficiencies involve sounds made incorrectly or inappropriately.

Voice disorders involve abnormalities in the quality, pitch, and loudness of the sound.

There are many potential causes of speech impairment:

• the most common is mental retardation
  
• hearing impairment
  
• ADD
  
• learning disabilities
  
• autism
  
• schizophrenia
  
• cerebral palsy
  
• cleft palate
  
• vocal cord injury
  
• disorders of the palate
  
• cri-du-chat syndrome
  
• Gilles de la Tourette syndrome
  

Delayed speech development is one of the common symptoms of developmentally delayed children. It occurs in 5-10% of all children. Boys are three to four times as likely to experience speech disorders as girls.

Symptoms

Dysfluency:

• repetition of sounds, words, or phrases after age 4
  
• frustration with attempts to communicate
  
• head jerking while talking
  
• eye blinking while talking
  
• embarrassment with speech
  

Articulation Deficiency:

• unintelligible speech by age 3
  
• the leaving out of consonants at the beginning of words by age 3
  
• the leaving out of consonants at the end of words by age 4
  
• persistent problems with articulation after age 7