Expression Disorder:

 

The ability for oral expression is substantially below the appropriate level for a child's mental age.

Difficulties may occur in verbal as well as body language.

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It's main characteristics are:

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• Quantitatively limited speech

• Limited vocabulary

• Difficulty acquiring new words

• Vocabulary errors or errors recalling words

• Excessively short sentences

• Simplified grammar

• Limited use of grammatical structures and types of sentences

• Omissions of critical parts of sentences

• Using an unusual word order

• Deceleration in language development

Comprehension Disorder:

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The ability for comprehension is markedly below the appropriate level for a child's mental age. Expression is also significantly affected (this condition is commonly called "mixed receptive-expressive language disorder") because the development of expressive language is derived from the acquisition of receptive skills. Apart from the characteristics of expression disorder mentioned above, in this disorder difficulty is seen in understanding words, phrases, or specific types of words. There can also be a deficit in different areas of auditory processing (sound discrimination, sound-symbol association, retention, recall and sequencing).

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Speech Disorder (Dyslalia):

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Its main characteristic is the inability to use the sounds of speech that are developmentally appropriate given a child’s age and language.It may involve

errors in the production, use, representation or organisation of sounds, such as substitution of one sound for another or omission of sounds.

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Stuttering:

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It is the disruption of normal fluency and temporal structure of speech given a patient’s age. It is characterised by frequent repetitions or prolongations of sounds or syllables. There may also be interjections, word fragmentation, blockage (audible or silent), circumlocutions, words produced with an excess of physical tension and repetition of monosyllables.

It does not usually occur during oral reading, singing or talking to inanimate objects or animals.

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Cambridge Medical Centre (CMC) Child & Adolescent Mental Health information publications Copyright 2018.