Language disorder

Last updated
Language disorder
Specialty Psychiatry, patholinguistics  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Language disorders or language impairments are disorders that involve the processing of linguistic information. Problems that may be experienced can involve grammar (syntax and/or morphology), semantics (meaning), or other aspects of language. These problems may be receptive (involving impaired language comprehension), expressive (involving language production), or a combination of both. Examples include specific language impairment, better defined as developmental language disorder, or DLD, and aphasia, among others. Language disorders can affect both spoken and written language, [1] and can also affect sign language; typically, all forms of language will be impaired.

Contents

Current data indicates that 7% of young children display language disorder, [2] [3] with boys being diagnosed twice as often as girls. [4]

Preliminary research on potential risk factors have suggested biological components, such as low birth weight, prematurity, general birth complications, and male gender, as well as family history and low parental education can increase the chance of developing language disorders. [5]

For children with phonological and expressive language difficulties, there is evidence supporting speech and language therapy. However, the same therapy is shown to be much less effective for receptive language difficulties. [6] These results are consistent with the poorer prognosis for receptive language impairments that are generally accompanied with problems in reading comprehension. [7]

Note that these are distinct from speech disorders, which involve difficulty with the act of speech production, but not with language.

Language disorders tend to manifest in two different ways: receptive language disorders (where one cannot properly comprehend language) and expressive language disorders (where one cannot properly communicate their intended message).

Receptive language disorders

Receptive language disorders can be acquired—as in the case of receptive aphasia, or developmental (most often the latter). When developmental, difficulties in spoken language tend to occur before three years of age. Usually such disorders are accompanied by expressive language disorders. [8]

However, unique symptoms and signs of a receptive language disorder include: struggling to understand meanings of words and sentences, struggling to put words in proper order, and inability to follow verbal instruction. [9]

Treatment options include: language therapy, special education classes for children at school, and a psychologist if accompanying behavioral problems are present.

Expressive language disorders

Expressive aphasia is characterized by partial loss of the ability to produce language, although comprehension generally remains intact; it is typically a result of stroke, trauma, or tumors. Other expressive language disorders may impair not only voice and articulation, but also the mental formation of language, itself.

Expressive language disorders can occur during a child's development or they can be acquired. This acquisition usually follows a normal neurological development and is brought about by a number of causes such as head trauma or irradiation. [10] [ unreliable medical source? ]

Features of an expressive language disorder vary, but have certain features in common such as: limited vocabulary, inability to produce complex grammar, and more lexical errors.

If it is a developmental disorder, the child will have difficulty acquiring new words and grammatical structures. The child will often begin speaking later than his/her peers and progress at a slower rate linguistically. Due to the very nature of these disorders, the child may struggle with academics and socializing with peers. [11] [ unreliable medical source? ]

Experts that commonly treat such disorders include speech pathologists and audiologists.

Psychopathology of language

A special class of language disorders is studied by the psychopathology of language. Its topics of interest range from simple speech error to dream speech and schizophasia.

Childhood language disorders

During childhood the most common type of disruption in communication is a language disorder. [12] In most cases, language development is predicable and referrals for evaluation may be needed in cases where a child's language development is atypical. [13] Language disorders among children are present when a child is experiencing substantial difficulty regarding their language development. [12] Among young children, language disorders have been associated with higher rates of social difficulties and anxiety. [14]

Specific language impairment

Specific language impairment (SLI) is a developmental language disorder among children that has no known cause and cannot be attributed to any physical or intellectual disability, environmental factors such as deprivation, hearing loss, or any other underlying etiology. [15] SLI is characterized by abnormal development of language that includes a delay in the onset of language, simplification of grammatical structures and difficulty with grammatical morphology, [13] limited vocabulary, and problems understanding complex language. [16] Children with SLI tend to begin speaking at a later age and have a smaller vocabulary than their peers. [13] Among the language disorders that are present during childhood, SLI is one of the most prevalent, affecting roughly 7% of children. [12] While children with specific language impairment have difficulty with language production, they are noted to have normal levels of intelligence. [13]

Autism spectrum disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a term used to define a group of developmental disorders that are characterized by disruption in communication and social abilities, limited eye contact, exhibiting repetitive behaviors, and having limited interests. [17] [12] Due to the impact that autism has on communication and social interactions, language is affected in most instances. [12]

Acquired neurogenic language disorders

Language disorders that are neurogenic affect the nervous system and result in disruption in language production. [18] The type of language dysfunction that occurs is dependent upon the site, extent, and cause of the brain damage. [18]

Aphasia

Aphasia is a language disorder that is caused by damage to the tissue in the language center in the brain. [12] The type of incident that most often causes Aphasia is stroke but can also occur due to traumatic brain injury, infection, tumors, and degenerative brain disorders. [19] [12] Aphasia is a disorder that is acquired, therefore it occurs in individuals that have already developed language. Aphasia does not affect a person's intellect or speech but Instead affects the formulation of language. [20] All areas of language are affected by aphasia including expressive and receptive language abilities. [20] Symptoms of aphasia vary widely but generally are defined by language deficits that affect fluency, the ability to talk, reading, writing, and comprehension. [19] [12] There are many types of aphasia that vary in symptoms depending upon where in the language center of the brain the damage occurred. [12] The aphasias can be categorized as different aphasic syndromes depending upon the location of lesion and the symptoms that differentiate the aphasias from one another. [21] Global aphasia is a type of aphasia that occurs in people where a large portion of the language center of the brain has been damaged and results in deficits in all modalities of language. [12] Broca's aphasia, also referred to as expressive aphasia, is an aphasic syndrome in which there is damage in left hemisphere, specifically in the Broca's area, [12] of the brain. [22] Broca's aphasia may affect an individual's ability to produce speech while comprehension remains intact. [22]

Traumatic brain injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is caused by neurological damage due to an open or closed head injury. [12] The most frequent causes of head injury include motor vehicle accidents, assault, gun related incidents, and falls, [23] TBI is categorized as either mild, moderate or severe [23] and can affect cognitive, psychosocial, and linguistic skills. [12] Language skills that may be affected include comprehension, motor output, word finding, and difficulties with reading. [24]

Classification

In order to help distinguish between language disorders, they are often categorized as either primary disorders of language, secondary disorders of language, acquired or developmental. A primary language disorder is one that cannot be attributed to an underlying disorder and is solely responsible for the language disturbance while a secondary language disorder is the result of another disorder. [12] Language disorders can also be categorized as developmental or acquired. A developmental language disorder is present at birth while an acquired language disorder occurs at some point after birth. Acquired language disorders can often be attributed to injuries within the brain due to occurrences such as stroke or Traumatic brain injury.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aphasia</span> Inability to comprehend or formulate language

In aphasia, a person may be unable to comprehend or unable to formulate language because of damage to specific brain regions. The major causes are stroke and head trauma; prevalence is hard to determine but aphasia due to stroke is estimated to be 0.1–0.4% in the Global North. Aphasia can also be the result of brain tumors, epilepsy, autoimmune neurological diseases, brain infections, or neurodegenerative diseases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Expressive aphasia</span> Language disorder involving inability to produce language

Expressive aphasia is a type of aphasia characterized by partial loss of the ability to produce language, although comprehension generally remains intact. A person with expressive aphasia will exhibit effortful speech. Speech generally includes important content words but leaves out function words that have more grammatical significance than physical meaning, such as prepositions and articles. This is known as "telegraphic speech". The person's intended message may still be understood, but their sentence will not be grammatically correct. In very severe forms of expressive aphasia, a person may only speak using single word utterances. Typically, comprehension is mildly to moderately impaired in expressive aphasia due to difficulty understanding complex grammar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Receptive aphasia</span> Language disorder involving inability to understand language

Wernicke's aphasia, also known as receptive aphasia, sensory aphasia, fluent aphasia, or posterior aphasia, is a type of aphasia in which individuals have difficulty understanding written and spoken language. Patients with Wernicke's aphasia demonstrate fluent speech, which is characterized by typical speech rate, intact syntactic abilities and effortless speech output. Writing often reflects speech in that it tends to lack content or meaning. In most cases, motor deficits do not occur in individuals with Wernicke's aphasia. Therefore, they may produce a large amount of speech without much meaning. Individuals with Wernicke's aphasia are typically unaware of their errors in speech and do not realize their speech may lack meaning. They typically remain unaware of even their most profound language deficits.

A communication disorder is any disorder that affects an individual's ability to comprehend, detect, or apply language and speech to engage in dialogue effectively with others. This also encompasses deficiencies in verbal and non-verbal communication styles. The delays and disorders can range from simple sound substitution to the inability to understand or use one's native language. This article covers subjects such as diagnosis, the DSM-IV, the DSM-V, and examples like sensory impairments, aphasia, learning disabilities, and speech disorders.

Aphasiology is the study of language impairment usually resulting from brain damage, due to neurovascular accident—hemorrhage, stroke—or associated with a variety of neurodegenerative diseases, including different types of dementia. These specific language deficits, termed aphasias, may be defined as impairments of language production or comprehension that cannot be attributed to trivial causes such as deafness or oral paralysis. A number of aphasias have been described, but two are best known: expressive aphasia and receptive aphasia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brain damage</span> Destruction or degeneration of brain cells

Neurotrauma, brain damage or brain injury (BI) is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors. In general, brain damage refers to significant, undiscriminating trauma-induced damage.

Expressive language disorder is one of the "specific developmental disorders of speech and language" recognized by the tenth edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). As of the eleventh edition, it is considered to be covered by the various categories of developmental language disorder. Transition to the ICD-11 will take place at a different time in different countries.

Mixed receptive-expressive language disorder is a communication disorder in which both the receptive and expressive areas of communication may be affected in any degree, from mild to severe. Children with this disorder have difficulty understanding words and sentences. This impairment is classified by deficiencies in expressive and receptive language development that is not attributed to sensory deficits, nonverbal intellectual deficits, a neurological condition, environmental deprivation or psychiatric impairments. Research illustrates that 2% to 4% of five year olds have mixed receptive-expressive language disorder. This distinction is made when children have issues in expressive language skills, the production of language, and when children also have issues in receptive language skills, the understanding of language. Those with mixed receptive-language disorder have a normal left-right anatomical asymmetry of the planum temporale and parietale. This is attributed to a reduced left hemisphere functional specialization for language. Taken from a measure of cerebral blood flow (SPECT) in phonemic discrimination tasks, children with mixed receptive-expressive language disorder do not exhibit the expected predominant left hemisphere activation. Mixed receptive-expressive language disorder is also known as receptive-expressive language impairment (RELI) or receptive language disorder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Global aphasia</span> Medical condition

Global aphasia is a severe form of nonfluent aphasia, caused by damage to the left side of the brain, that affects receptive and expressive language skills as well as auditory and visual comprehension. Acquired impairments of communicative abilities are present across all language modalities, impacting language production, comprehension, and repetition. Patients with global aphasia may be able to verbalize a few short utterances and use non-word neologisms, but their overall production ability is limited. Their ability to repeat words, utterances, or phrases is also affected. Due to the preservation of the right hemisphere, an individual with global aphasia may still be able to express themselves through facial expressions, gestures, and intonation. This type of aphasia often results from a large lesion of the left perisylvian cortex. The lesion is caused by an occlusion of the left middle cerebral artery and is associated with damage to Broca's area, Wernicke's area, and insular regions which are associated with aspects of language.

Specific language impairment (SLI) is diagnosed when a child's language does not develop normally and the difficulties cannot be accounted for by generally slow development, physical abnormality of the speech apparatus, autism spectrum disorder, apraxia, acquired brain damage or hearing loss. Twin studies have shown that it is under genetic influence. Although language impairment can result from a single-gene mutation, this is unusual. More commonly SLI results from the combined influence of multiple genetic variants, each of which is found in the general population, as well as environmental influences.

Landau–Kleffner syndrome (LKS)—also called infantile acquired aphasia, acquired epileptic aphasia or aphasia with convulsive disorder—is a rare childhood neurological syndrome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Speech</span> Human vocal communication using spoken language

Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words, and using those words in their semantic character as words in the lexicon of a language according to the syntactic constraints that govern lexical words' function in a sentence. In speaking, speakers perform many different intentional speech acts, e.g., informing, declaring, asking, persuading, directing, and can use enunciation, intonation, degrees of loudness, tempo, and other non-representational or paralinguistic aspects of vocalization to convey meaning. In their speech, speakers also unintentionally communicate many aspects of their social position such as sex, age, place of origin, physical states, psychological states, physico-psychological states, education or experience, and the like.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Speech–language pathology</span> Disability therapy profession

Speech–language pathology (also known as speech and language pathology or logopedics) is a healthcare and academic discipline concerning the evaluation, treatment, and prevention of communication disorders, including expressive and mixed receptive-expressive language disorders, voice disorders, speech sound disorders, speech disfluency, pragmatic language impairments, and social communication difficulties, as well as swallowing disorders across the lifespan. It is an allied health profession regulated by professional bodies including the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and Speech Pathology Australia. The field of speech-language pathology is practiced by a clinician known as a speech-language pathologist (SLP) or a speech and language therapist (SLT). SLPs also play an important role in the screening, diagnosis, and treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), often in collaboration with pediatricians and psychologists.

In human development, muteness or mutism is defined as an absence of speech, with or without an ability to hear the speech of others. Mutism is typically understood as a person's inability to speak, and commonly observed by their family members, caregivers, teachers, doctors or speech and language pathologists. It may not be a permanent condition, as muteness can be caused or manifest due to several different phenomena, such as physiological injury, illness, medical side effects, psychological trauma, developmental disorders, or neurological disorders. A specific physical disability or communication disorder can be more easily diagnosed. Loss of previously normal speech (aphasia) can be due to accidents, disease, or surgical complication; it is rarely for psychological reasons.

Aprosodia is a neurological condition characterized by the inability of a person to properly convey or interpret emotional prosody. Prosody in language refers to the ranges of rhythm, pitch, stress, intonation, etc. These neurological deficits can be the result of damage of some form to the non-dominant hemisphere areas of language production. The prevalence of aprosodias in individuals is currently unknown, as testing for aprosodia secondary to other brain injury is only a recent occurrence.

Apraxia of speech (AOS), also called verbal apraxia, is a speech sound disorder affecting an individual's ability to translate conscious speech plans into motor plans, which results in limited and difficult speech ability. By the definition of apraxia, AOS affects volitional movement pattern. However, AOS usually also affects automatic speech.

Speech and language impairment are basic categories that might be drawn in issues of communication involve hearing, speech, language, and fluency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Verbal intelligence</span> The ability to understand concepts in words

Verbal intelligence is the ability to understand and reason using concepts framed in words. More broadly, it is linked to problem solving, abstract reasoning, and working memory. Verbal intelligence is one of the most g-loaded abilities.

Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is identified when a child has problems with language development that continue into school age and beyond. The language problems have a significant impact on everyday social interactions or educational progress, and occur in the absence of autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability or a known biomedical condition. The most obvious problems are difficulties in using words and sentences to express meanings, but for many children, understanding of language is also a challenge. This may not be evident unless the child is given a formal assessment.

Social (pragmatic) communication disorder (SPCD), also known as pragmatic language impairment (PLI), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significant difficulties in the social use of verbal and nonverbal communication. Individuals with SPCD struggle to effectively engage in social interactions, interpret social cues, and use language appropriately in social contexts. This disorder can have a profound impact on an individual's ability to establish and maintain relationships, navigate social situations, and participate in academic and professional settings. Although SPCD shares similarities with other communication disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), it is recognized as a distinct diagnostic category with its own set of diagnostic criteria and features.

References

  1. ↑ Katusic, Slavica K.; Colligan, Robert C.; Weaver, Amy L.; Barbaresi, William J. (2009-05-01). "The Forgotten Learning Disability: Epidemiology of Written-Language Disorder in a Population-Based Birth Cohort (1976–1982), Rochester, Minnesota". Pediatrics. 123 (5): 1306–1313. doi:10.1542/peds.2008-2098. ISSN   0031-4005. PMC   2923476 . PMID   19403496. Archived from the original on 2017-05-09.
  2. ↑ Beitchman, J., & Brownlie, E. B. (2014). Language disorders in children and adolescents. Cambridge, MA: Hogrefe & Huber.
  3. ↑ Heim, S., & Benasich, A. A. (2006). Developmental disorders of language. In D. Cicchetti & D. J. Cohen (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology, Vol. 3. Risk, disorder, and adaptation (2nd ed., pp. 268–316). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
  4. ↑ Pinborough-Zimmerman, J., Satterfield, R., Miller, J., Bilder, D., Hossain, S., & McMahon, W. (2007). Communication disorders: Prevalence and comorbid intellectual disability, autism, and emotional/ behavioral disorders. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 16, 359–367.
  5. ↑ Wallace, Ina F.; Berkman, Nancy D.; Watson, Linda R.; Coyne-Beasley, Tamera; Wood, Charles T.; Cullen, Katherine; Lohr, Kathleen N. (2015-08-01). "Screening for Speech and Language Delay in Children 5 Years Old and Younger: A Systematic Review". Pediatrics. 136 (2): e448–e462. doi: 10.1542/peds.2014-3889 . ISSN   0031-4005. PMID   26152671. Archived from the original on 2016-03-10.
  6. ↑ Law, James; Garrett, Zoe; Nye, Chad (2003-07-21). "Speech and language therapy interventions for children with primary speech and language delay or disorder". Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2015 (3): CD004110. doi:10.1002/14651858.cd004110. PMC   8407295 . PMID   12918003.
  7. ↑ Kotsopoulos, S. (2013-05-22). "Neurodevelopmental Disorders". Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. DSM Library. Vol. 26. American Psychiatric Association. p. 257. doi:10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596.dsm01. ISBN   978-0890425558. PMC   1408294 .{{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  8. ↑ Victoria State Govt. "Receptive language disorder." Better Health Channel, 2016, "Receptive language disorder". Archived from the original on 2017-07-12. Retrieved 2017-06-09..
  9. ↑ The Understood Team. "Understanding Language Disorders." Edited by Bob Cunningham. Understood: for learning & attention issues, 2014, "Child Learning Disabilities | Behavior Problems | Attention Issues". Archived from the original on 2017-07-03. Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  10. ↑ Bressert, S. (2016). Expressive Language Disorder Symptoms. Psych Central. Retrieved on May 1, 2017, from "Expressive Language Disorder Symptoms". 2016-05-17. Archived from the original on 2017-01-19. Retrieved 2017-05-01.
  11. ↑ ASHA. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, psychcentral.com/disorders/expressive-language-disorder-symptoms/.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Justice, Laura, M. and Erin Redle. Communication Sciences and Disorders. Available from: Yuzu, (3rd Edition). Pearson Education (US), 2013.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Simms, Mark D. (June 2007). "Language Disorders in Children: Classification and Clinical Syndromes". Pediatric Clinics of North America. 54 (3): 437–467. doi:10.1016/j.pcl.2007.02.014. ISSN   0031-3955. PMID   17543904.
  14. ↑ Brownlie, E. B.; Bao, Lin; Beitchman, Joseph (August 2016). "Childhood Language Disorder and Social Anxiety in Early Adulthood". Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. 44 (6): 1061–1070. doi:10.1007/s10802-015-0097-5. ISSN   0091-0627. PMID   26530522. S2CID   5272348.
  15. ↑ Hill, Elisabeth L. (January 2001). "Non-specific nature of specific language impairment: a review of the literature with regard to concomitant motor impairments". International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders. 36 (2): 149–171. doi:10.1080/13682820010019874. ISSN   1368-2822. PMID   11344592.
  16. ↑ Bishop, Dorothy V.M. (October 2006). "What Causes Specific Language Impairment in Children?". Current Directions in Psychological Science. 15 (5): 217–221. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2006.00439.x. ISSN   0963-7214. PMC   2582396 . PMID   19009045.
  17. ↑ "Autism Spectrum Disorder". National Institute of Mental Health .
  18. 1 2 editor., Gillam, Ronald B. (Ronald Bradley), 1955- editor. Marquardt, Thomas P. (October 2019). Communication sciences and disorders : from science to clinical practice. Jones & Bartlett Learning. ISBN   978-1-284-18078-7. OCLC   1110126077.{{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  19. 1 2 "Aphasia". American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).
  20. 1 2 BROOKE., HALLOWELL (2021). APHASIA AND OTHER ACQUIRED NEUROGENIC LANGUAGE DISORDERS : a guide for clinical excellence. PLURAL PUBLISHING. ISBN   978-1-63550-159-9. OCLC   1261727639.
  21. ↑ George), Jankovic, Joseph, editor. Mazziotta, John C., editor. Pomeroy, Scott Loren, editor. Newman, Nancy J., editor. Bradley, W. G. (Walter (25 March 2021). Bradley and Daroff's neurology in clinical practice. Elsevier. ISBN   978-0-323-64261-3. OCLC   1244252719.{{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  22. 1 2 "Broca's (Expressive) Aphasia". National Aphasia Association. Retrieved 2021-11-22.
  23. 1 2 "Traumatic Brain Injury & Concussion". Center for Disease Control and Prevention. 12 May 2021.
  24. ↑ "Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)". American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Further reading


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.