Distinction of Communication, Speech and Language Disorders

Why Are Separate Terms Used When Naming Disorders?

 

Communication was born out of the individual's need to interact with his environment in a community; It has emerged in order to convey information, feelings, thoughts and needs. We use language to carry out verbal communication. Tongue; It is a regular system that we use to convey meaning. In other words, it is a code shared by the members of the society who use it. Speaking, on the other hand, is the act of transforming the verbal language, which we use as a means of expressing our thoughts, into sounds through the necessary organs. The broadest of these three terms is communication; includes speech and language. Communication also includes nonverbal information such as gestures, body language, facial expressions, and eye contact, along with cues such as stress, rate of speech, and melody.

 

Communication, language and speech development do not always go together. However, a disorder in one area may affect development or competencies in another area. For example; A child with a speech sound disorder can accurately reproduce a limited number of speech sounds, making their speech difficult to understand. The fact that his speech is not understood by the people in front of him negatively affects his communication skills. However, the child may have typical language skills; can understand what others say and use sentences of grammatical content and complexity that are appropriate for their age. He can also support his communication by supplementing his distorted speech with gestures and reformatting his verbal output to be understood. A child with a language disorder may also not always have difficulty producing speech sounds. However, communication skills; may be limited due to not understanding what others are saying, limited vocabulary and using simple sentences. Some children may have perfect pronunciation and a very large vocabulary. They can express themselves using appropriate and regular sentences. However, communication skills; tangential speech is limited to features such as moving away from the subject, not being able to reorganize the content. Speech and language therapists therefore make a distinction between the three to highlight the child's most obvious difficulty.

 

The definition of communication disorder can be considered as an umbrella term. Speech and language disorders are also included.

 

If the child has difficulty in understanding what is being said and expressing himself verbally, this is called a "language disorder". Some children with language disorders have problems in forming words, some in connecting words, some in producing by organizing the sound system of the language, and some in using the language. Language disorders sometimes occur due to other accompanying disorders (hearing loss, intellectual disability, etc.). Sometimes, it is not based on any specific reason and is seen independently of other disorders. This condition is defined as a developmental (specific) language disorder. The word developmental is used to express a condition whose cause is unknown. These children have trouble understanding and using their mother tongue for no apparent reason.

 

Some children have difficulty physically converting verbal language into sounds. These children cannot produce speech sounds accurately, clearly and fluently. This condition is called “speech disorder”. Speech disorders include articulation and phonetic disorders, motor speech disorders, fluency disorders and voice disorders.

 

In order to plan an effective speech and language therapy with appropriate approaches for children, it is necessary to know what the communication difficulties are and in which areas the child has problems, regardless of the underlying causes. What will define a communication intervention program is the detailed description of communicative competence. For this reason, a speech and language therapist evaluates the skill areas within these three concepts in detail for a child who applies with a speech or language problem. It determines whether the problem is a language disorder, a speech disorder, or a communication disorder according to the area where the child has the most difficulty. Language disorders and speech disorders can be seen separately and independently of each other, or they can occur together.