When a person is unable to produce speech sounds correctly or fluently, or has problems with his or her voice, and then he or she has a speech disorder. Difficulties pronouncing sounds, or articulation disorders, and stuttering are examples of speech disorders.

• When a person has trouble understanding others (receptive language), or sharing thoughts, ideas, and feelings completely (expressive language), then he or she has a language disorder. A stroke can result in aphasia, or a language disorder.
• Both children and adults can have speech and language disorders. They can occur as a result of a medical problem or have no known cause.

Adult Speech and Language

Adults may experience speech and language difficulties for a variety of reasons. Information about specific types of speech and language differences and disorders, as well as conditions that cause them is included below.

Speech Disorders

• Apraxia:

Apraxia of speech is a motor speech disorder. The messages from the brain to the mouth are disrupted, and the person cannot move his or her lips or tongue to the right place to say sounds correctly, even though the muscles are not weak. The severity of apraxia depends on the nature of the brain damage. Apraxia can occur in conjunction with dysarthria (muscle weakness affecting speech production) or aphasia (language difficulties related to neurological damage).

Apraxia of speech is also known as acquired apraxia of speech, verbal apraxia, and dyspraxia.

• Dysarthria

Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder. It results from impaired movement of the muscles used for speech production, including the lips, tongue, vocal folds, and/or diaphragm. The type and severity of dysarthria depend on which area of the nervous system is affected.

Language Disorders

• Aphasia
• Aphasia is a communication disorder that results from damage to the parts of the brain that contain language (typically in the left half of the brain). Individuals who experience damage to the right side of the brain may have additional difficulties beyond speech and language issues. Aphasia may causes difficulties in speaking, listening, reading, and writing, but does not affect intelligence. Individuals with aphasia may also have other problems, such as dysarthria, apraxia or swallowing problems.

Symptoms at Home

Language processing challenges will likely interfere with your home relationships, and may even cause arguments or misunderstandings. Symptoms can include:

• Expressive Language Disorder
  • - Finds it hard to come up with exact words to say; substitutes “stuff” or “things” frequently, even for commonly used words
  • - Substitutes related words, even when they don’t mean the same thing (says “couch” instead of “chair” or “beef” instead of “chicken”)
  • - Frequently switches sounds within words, seemingly without noticing
  • - Uses made-up words frequently when the correct word can’t be produced
  • - Often says sentences that don’t make sense
  • - Forgets words or says them out of order
  • - Misuses idioms or says them incorrectly
• Receptive Language Disorder
  • - Doesn’t understand jokes; takes everything very literally
  • - Finds it difficult to focus on what someone is saying, particularly if there is background noise like a television
  • - Often seems disinterested in conversations, even with friends or loved ones
  • - Can’t answer questions about what was just discussed

Symptoms at Work

Difficulties with language can impact your career by making it difficult for you to finish tasks or get along with coworkers. Symptoms in the workplace could include:

Expressive Language Disorders

• - Anxiety about having to speak in front of people or give a presentation
• - Trouble answering a direct question from your supervisor, even if you know the answer
• - Struggles to keep up with office small talk
• - Unable to master the “vocabulary” of your workplace, often saying the wrong word in work- related situations

Receptive Language Disorders

• - Can’t keep up during meetings, especially if more than one person is talking
• - Misinterprets friendly conversation as rude or confusing
• - Unable to answer questions during meetings
• - Trouble following multi-step verbal instructions; prefers to receive all assignments via email

Normal language development involves the ability to hear, see, comprehend, and retain information. This process may be delayed in some children, who eventually catch up with peers.

A delay in language development may be related to:

• Hearing problems
• Brain injury
• Damage to the central nervous system

Sometimes, delayed language may accompany other developmental problems, such as:

• Hearing loss
• Autism
• Learning disability

About us & speech and language disorder

A thorough examination will be done by our Doctors. This will help rule out or diagnose other conditions, such as a hearing problem or other sensory impairment.

Screening

Screening of spoken language skills is conducted if a language disorder is suspected. Screening does not result in a diagnosis, but rather indicates the potential need for further assessment

Comprehensive Assessment

Individuals suspected of having a language impairment based on screening results are referred for a comprehensive, linguistically appropriate assessment by a speech-language pathologist and other professionals as needed.

Speech therapy

Based on the screening and assessment customized therapy plan will be formulated prioritizing the individual needs. This involves relearning phonics, mono and poly syllables and progress to making words and sentences. Most are paper based and we also have ipad based apps that make the learning experience more enjoyable and easy.