Dysfluency is a speech and language impairment characterized by disruptions to the natural flow of speech, such as whole word or part word repetitions, prolongations, or complete blockages of sounds. Literature by Kehoe (2001), Kalinowski and Saltuklaroglu (2006) succinctly describe dysfluency as an involuntary disorder in which the individual uses speech musculature in such a way that makes speech difficult or impossible. The blocks, repetitions and prolongations associated with dysfluency may also be accompanied by secondary behaviours, which can also be known as avoidance behaviours. These so called behaviours include facial grimacing, eye blinks, tics, tremors of the face and lips, or fist clenching but can present differently with each individual, and indeed some people with dysfluency may not present with secondary behaviours (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).
It is estimated that between between 4-5% of the population have been dysfluent for periods of longer than six months at some point in their life and as a result, there have been a variety of treatment programmes developed to target dysfluency. The approaches will differ with each programme as some may focus on controlling the behaviour around stuttering and focus on helping people with dysfluency to develop more positive attitudes toward communication. Other ways to provide intervention for dysfluency include having the speech and language therapist (SLT) teach individuals with dysfluency to control and monitor their speaking rate and respiration. The SLTs will often involve the family in treatment, particularly within the areas of paediatric dysfluency, and one such approach is Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) which was developed by Lena Rustin (1991)....
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...the efficiency of PCIT in a multitude of different clinical environments (Matthews, Williams, et al, 1997; Millard, Nicholas et al, 2008). These studies have diminished the risk of other factors impacting the improvement of fluency as they have incorporated participants who have been dysfluent for more than twelve months in an attempt to reduce the likelihood that any improvement of fluency could be attributable to spontaneous recovery. The single subject designs and analyses employed in these studies elicit strong evidence that changes in the fluency of these individuals were attributable to the provision of PCIT.
Although the above evidence supports the efficiency of using PCIT as a treatment approach for children with dysfluency, we must remember that it is impossible to predict, with any accuracy, the prognosis for any individual child, (Bernstein Ratner, 1997).
Compared to a model of normal communication, a child with Developmental Stuttering has a few noticeable communication impairments. The young man named Geoff who was presented in the case study has some difficulties concerning with his language. At thirteen years old, he had some noticeable issues within his model of communication that were abnormal for a teenage boy. In regards to articulation, the rapid and coordinated movement of the tongue, teeth, lips, and palate to produce speech sounds, Geoff reported that there “were certain words that he could not say without stuttering severely”. One of these words included “French”. He would use different words in order to avoid saying the words he would always stutter on, or just not use the particular word at all. This became a disadvantage for
Stuttering affects the fluency of speech. Stuttering is characterized by disruptions in speech sound productions, also known as a disfluency. Mostly, stuttering has a significant effect on some daily activities. Though some people have disfluency deficits only in certain situations. Some people limit their participations in different everyday activities because they are often embarrassed or sad about their situation and are concerned about how other's will react to stuttering. In stuttered speech repetitions of words or also of parts of words are included. Prolongations of speech sounds may also occur. It is a characteristic of some people who
Ataxic dysarthria is one of several types of dysarthria. “Dysarthria is a group of motor speech disorders resulting from disturbed muscular control of the speech mechanism due to damage of the peripheral or central nervous system” (Hedge, 2001, p. 198). In specific, ataxic dysarthria is a disorder that affects the control of speech production due to damage to the cerebellum or the neural pathways that connect the cerebellum to other parts of the central nervous system.
`There are two types of treatment options for aphasia, speech and language therapy. Some people with Aphasia do not completely regain their communication skills they had before the disorder. With speech and language therapy it can help the patient improved their language skills by relearning them, It can help better use of the residual language ability, It also can give the patient the ability to communicate in a different way, making up for missing words in speech.
According to Millard et at., indirect approaches are based on the theory that stuttering is a disorder with physiological, linguistic, psychological, and environmental factors influencing the onset, impact, and prognosis of stuttering. There are also additional variables that may become significant in relation to the moment a child starts stuttering such as parent interaction behaviors, the child’s articulatory skills and the child’s temperament. Because environmental factors can be changed, parent interaction styles can have a major impact of the long-term development of stuttering (Millard et al.).
Stuttering is also known as dysfluency, stammering, faltering and a few other layman terms. It is more noticeable when children are angry, excited, upset, uncomfortable, or tired. This faltering over words is quite different from individuals with dysfluency. Dysfluency is stammering that starts amid a youngster's years of intensive language learning that usually resolves without anyone else at some point before pubescence. Normal dysfluency viewed as a typical period of dialect improvement. Around 75 out of 100 kids whom falter/stutter show signs of improvement without treatment. This can be a difficult stage for both children and adults. Participant 1, Claudette and Participant 2, Janet feels uncomfortable and self-conscious due to other children and certain family members laughing at
Throughout this research it will go over stuttering (which was operationally defined as any hesitation, stoppage, repetition, or prolongation in the rhythmic flow of vocal behavior ( Azrin; Flanagan; Goldiamond; 2006) in great detail. Stuttering has often been considered an emotional blocking; it can, however, be regarded as a unit of verbal behavior; that is, breaks, pauses, repetitions, and other nonfluencies can be considered operant responses, having in common with other operant the characteristic of being controllable by ensuing consequences (Azrin;Flanagan; Goldiamond; 2006). The ways that stuttering comes about, the strategies and treatments that makes stuttering successful, the positives and negatives of stuttering, stats, historical context and definitions. Stuttering not only affects the stutterer’s speech but also the outcome on one’s social life and how successful they become according to how their stuttering is handled. There are multiple ways of handling stutterers and ways to implement strategies and treatments to help them become more successful in school and their social life. Due to stuttering beginning at an early age it is very important for and educator and parents to implement strategies to help a stutterer become comfortable in academic and social environment. Without the involvement of parents and teachers there will be a lack of engagement from the stutterer.
Stuttering is a neurological disorder of communication, from which the normal flow of speech is disrupted by repetitions (neu-neu-neuro), prolongations (biiiii-ol-ooogy), or abnormal stoppages (no sound) of sounds and syllables. Rapid eye blinking, tremors of the lips and/or jaw, or other struggle behaviors of the face or upper body may accompany speech disruptions ((3)). Why does stuttering worsen in situations that involve speaking before a group of people or talking on the phone, whereas fluency of speech improves in situations such as whispering, acting, talking to pets, speaking alone, or singing ((1))? In ancient times, physicians believed that the stutterer's tongue was either too long or too short, too wet or too dry. Therefore, practitioners from the mid-1800s tried surgical remedies such as drilling holes into the skull or cutting pieces of the tongue out to eliminate stuttering (1).
Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability that refers to a cluster of symptoms. These symptoms result in people having difficulties with specific language skills, reading in particular (Frequently Asked Questions About Dyslexia. (n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2014, from http://www.interdys.org/FAQ.htm). Students with dyslexia also have difficulties with spelling, understanding language they hear, or expressing themselves clearly in speaking or in writing. Wilkins (2002), states that “an unexpected gap exists between their potential for learning and their school achievement.” Dyslexia presents differently in many people and each person has their own strengths and weaknesses (Wilkins, Angela, Garside, 2002). Dyslexia affects people throughout
Methods: First we will check which velar sounds mrs. K. can produce better than the others. After that, we will do articulation exercises. We will train syllables in a CV order and words in CVC-order, but soon we will train syllables and words with clusters to make it more difficult. Mrs. K. has a moderate flaccid dysarthria, so we think that she can manage it to train in the beginning with complex words. That way, she will also have a higher chance of transfer to CVC-words (Maas et al., 2008, p. 2). The words we will use in therapy are extracted from the book “The Gruffalo” (Donaldson, 1999). If she can pronounce the words correctly on word level, we will try to produce small sentences with these words, so mrs. K. will be able to read this book to her grandchildren after six weeks. We will also train other words concerning her environment; names of her loved ones and things she likes to do. Every week, we will give mrs. K. some homework and try to involve the family. In that way, we hope for a transfer, so mrs. K. can apply the speech movements she learned in therapy into her daily life.
Communication is very crucial in life, especially in education. Whether it be delivering a message or receiving information, without the ability to communicate learning can be extremely difficult. Students with speech and language disorders may have “trouble producing speech sounds, using spoken language to communicate, or understanding what other people say” (Turkington, p10, 2003) Each of these problems can create major setbacks in the classroom. Articulation, expression and reception are all essential components for communication. If a student has an issue with articulation, they most likely then have difficulty speaking clearly and at a normal rate (Turkington, 2003). When they produce words, they may omit, substitute, or even distort sounds, hindering their ability to talk. Students who lack in ways of expression have problems explaining what they are thinking and feeling because they do not understand certain parts of language. As with all types of learning disabilities, the severity can range. Two extreme cases of expression disorders are dysphasia and aphasia, in which there is partial to no communication at all (Greene, 435, 2002). Individuals can also have a receptive disorder, in which they do not fully comprehend and understand information that is being given to them. They can experience problems making sense of things. “Children may hear or see a word but not be able to understand its meaning” (National Institutes of Health, 1993, p1). Whether children have difficulty articulating speech, expressing words, receiving information, or a combination of the three, there is no doubt that the tasks given to them in school cause frustration. These children experience anxiety when...
According to dyslexic researchers, Emma Sumner, Vincent Connelly, and Anna L. Barnett dyslexia shows it itself via, “ …significant difficulties with acquiring orthographic knowledge and [children with dyslexia] show poor phonological skills” (Sumner, Connelly, and Barnett, 2013). Owen Barden, another dyslexia researcher states, “Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty which mainly affects the development of literacy and language related skills… It is characterized by difficulties with phonological processing, rapid naming, working memory, processing speed, and the automatic development of skills that may not match up to an individual’s other cognitive abilities” (Barden, 2014). Finally, according to the International Dyslexia Association the formal definition of dyslexia is, “Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction” (International Dyslexia Association). Another definition for dyslexia, according to Emma Sumner et la, dyslexic researchers, is, “ Children with dyslexia have significant
Witsel (2003) from the Southern Cross University advanced that teaching at tertiary or any level was rather uncomfortable even when the socioeconomic and cultural background of students are compatible with that of their teachers. Consequently, teachers have the added responsibility of motivating, assessing, negotiating, admonishing as well as teaching. The expert contends that these tasks force teachers to go beyond the call of duty by placing themselves in active relationships with students and the professional responsibilities they execute on a daily basis. Therefore, it becomes complicated when students appear in a classroom with various linguistic backgrounds, learning styles and expectations based on their socioeconomic and cultural development (Witsel, 2003).
People across the United States, from small rural areas to enormous urban centers, from small town farmers, to big city nurses, exhibit signs of a Developmental Dyslexia. In fact, Herb Scribner (2014) identifies it as one of the most common disabilities that American children have, and due to this fact, most people have heard of and likely know someone who exhibits symptoms of this relatively common disability. Due to the number of those affected by this disability, it is certainly one that strikes close to the heart of Americans; so what exactly is it, and what can be done by family and specifically Occupational therapists (OTs) to reduce its debilitating effects and increase the success of these children and adults?