Speech and Language Impairments Disability Essay

Disability Profile:

Communication, being the exchange of thoughts, ideas, feelings and information. Communication can be both verbal and nonverbal, examples of nonlinguistic communication can be posture, eye contact, gesture or head and body movement.

On the other hand verbal communication can be in the form of speech and language and in order to better understand speech and language impairments one must first understand how they work both the ability and the disability forms.

Speech is the expression of language using sounds in an effort to convey thoughts, ideas and intentions. Speech is a very complicated process in humans, as compared to other animals we are not the only organisms to emit sounds but we are the only that have a vocal tract that allows us to emit a whole variety of complicated sounds. Its a result of a precise physiological and neuromuscular coordination, this is done by three steps, the first being respiration which is the normal breathing process, second comes phonation, which is the production of sound within the larynx and vocal fold, third comes articulation which is the use of our tongue, teeth, soft and hard plates to form speech sounds. As for the disorder speech impairment is mainly characterized by the difficulty in articulation of words like wrong pronunciation where normal speech is disrupted, this can range from stuttering, lisps, etc. to the utter disability of speech which is called mute.

Language on the other hand is a rule based method of communication involving the use of signs and symbols by which ideas are conveyed. The main purpose of language is self expression and communications and can be seen as a code that represents ideas and concepts in the world. When a person knows a certain language, it means that a person is able to apply the basic units and the complex rules governing the relationships among the sounds, words, sentences, meaning and the use of language.

Language contains five interrelated yet distinct elements: phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatic. And as for the disability, language impairment is the disorder concerning the understanding and sharing of thoughts, ideas and processing. Problems can involve either grammar, meaning or other aspects of language. This impairment affects all forms of language whether it's spoken, written or even sign language.

There are various known causes of speech and language impairments, such as hearing loss, neurological disorders, brain injury, intellectual disability, physical impairments  and vocal abuse.Many of these types of disorders can be treated by speech therapy, but others require medical attention by a doctor in phoniatrics. Other treatments include correction of organic conditions and psychotherapy.

Disability Analysis:

Indeed Suffering from a speech disorder can have negative social effects, especially among young children. Those with a speech disorder can be targets of bullying because of their disorder. The bullying can result in decreased self-esteem. Later in life, bullying is experienced less by a general population, as people become more understanding as they age. This disability can be particularly harder to overcome at a young age where the a person is in a character forming stage and being laughed at and taunted plays a negative role at such a young stage.

Speech and language impairments may also result in discrimination in the workplace. For example, an employer would be discriminatory if he/she chose to not make reasonable accommodations for the affected individual, such as allowing the individual to miss work for medical appointments or not making onsite-accommodations needed because of the speech impairment.Therapy often occurs in small groups of three or four students with similar needs. Meeting either in the office of the speech-language pathologist or in the classroom, sessions may take from 30 minutes to one hour. They may occur several times per week. After introductory conversations, the session is focused on a particular therapeutic activity, such as coordination and strengthening exercises of speech muscles or improving fluency through breathing techniques.

As the disabled person grows with a better understanding of one's disability, the surrounding environment becomes more and more accepting of his or hers disability and becomes less of an issue because of the person has positively learned to overcome his or her disability and move on. Intervention services will be guided by the strengths and needs determined by the speech and language evaluation. The areas of need may be addressed individually until each one is functional; alternatively, multiple needs may be addressed simultaneously through the intervention techniques. If possible, all interventions will be geared towards the goal of developing typical communicative interaction. To this end, interventions typically follow either a preventive, remedial, or compensatory model.

Future Trends:

I chose to research this disability mostly due to me having come across several people with speech and language disability, over the years I have had friends and family that suffer from a number of speech and language disability, at grade school one of my friend used to have a speech problem called cluttering I remember a number of classmates used to make fun of him and taunt him but that wouldn't bother him, looking back at the situation this friend of mine at the course of his lifetime he learned to accept and adapt to his disability and even make fun of it himself. This can be a positive and negative thing to do, in the positive he managed to overcome the social aspect and he did that very well but on the other hand it's a negative thing to do on the long run because this prevented him from seeking help and working on fixing his disability, I lost contact to this person but I assume things haven't changed much. I also have a sister that has a speech impairment called lisps, she has trouble saying the letter S, over the course of the years I have been bullying her about this but after learning more about this disability I will make sure I take a more positive course of action towards her and teach her in a good manner about her disability and ways to overcome it.

These impairments represent a high incidence disability, advances in the area of genetic research and enhanced assistive technology. As research confirms the benefits of early intervention medical and educational professionals have become increasingly aware of the urgent need of early diagnosis and timely well provision of services. The base of knowledge regarding the causes of speech and language impairments are expanding rapidly and more effective strategies are being worked on to be put in place,  As the human genome project unlocks complexities of the genetic code the incidence of syndromes and disorders with a hereditary component may be reduced as medical intervention becomes more and more effective. Future trends  continue to shape the professional practice by considering major ecological factors, such as culture, in relation to speech and language impairments. It was during this period that IDEA was passed, and this allowed professionals to begin working with a greater scope and to increase the diversity of problems with which they concerned themselves

Recommendation:

As technology advances the future of all disabilities are much brighter than ever, almost every day we see new breakthroughs in the world of medicine and health. But as for speech and language impairments, professionals are more qualified now than ever with great knowledge in all different aspects that contribute to the the curing of a patient. Professionals these days have a rich background in ecology and culture where a professional have an expanded point of view on the disability itself which in turn help through the diagnosing process and ultimately the healing and curing process.

I think the trends are on the right track and from what I have learned they have done a marvelous job on all different aspects, Aided systems are often electronic devices, and they may or may not provide some form of voice output. If a device does create a voice output, it is referred to as a speech generating device. While the message may take the form of speech output, it may also be printed as a visual display of speech. Many of these devices can be connected to a computer, and in some cases, they may even be adapted to produce a variety of different languages and to me they seem to be heading to an ultimate cure of all disabilities and especially the speech and language impairment.

I would recommend that parents, who encounter the disabled child the most should be educated more so they can also play a positive role in diagnosing and sending the child to a professional if needed. Parents should always act with a positive manner if in fact the child has a speech or language impairment, they should make sure all is done for the child with a discrete notion so the child is not effected with the enormous attention he is getting. Because I believe the child should not be aware that his disability is of any importance to the people that love him or her.