Essentials of Communication Sciences and Disorders Chapter 1

acquired disorder

A disorder that begins after an individual has developed normal communication abilities, such as a hearing loss from loud noise exposure or a speech, language, or cognitive disorder caused by a traumatic brain injury.

aphasia/dysphasia

An impairment in language processing that may affect any or all input modalities (auditory, visual, and tactile) and any or all output modalities (speaking, writing, and gesturing).

aphonia

A complete loss of voice followed by whispering for oral communication that typically has psychological causes such as emotional stress.

articulation disorder

The incorrect production of speech sounds due to faulty placement, timing, direction, pressure, speed, or integration of the movements of the mandible, maxilla, lips, tongue, or velum.

articulation

The movements of the articulators for speech sound production that involves accuracy in placement, timing, direction of movement, and pressure of the articulators on one another; the totality of motor processes involved in the planning and execution of speech.

articulator

In speech, the mandible, maxilla, lips, tongue, and soft palate are the articulators.

audiologist

A professional who is specifically educated and trained to identify, evaluate, treat, and prevent hearing disorders, plus select and evaluate hearing aids, and habilitate or rehabilitate individuals with hearing impairments.

clinicians

Health care professionals, such as physicians, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, audiologists, psychiatrists, or psychologists involved in clinical practice who base their practice on direct observation and treatment of patients and clients.

cluttering

Speech that is abnormally fast with omissions of sounds and syllables of words, abnormal patterns of pausing and phrasing, and often spoken in bursts that may be unintelligible; frequently includes abnormalities in syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.

cognition

The act or process of thinking or learning that involves perceiving, memory, abstraction, generalization, reasoning, judgment, and problem solving; closely related to intelligence.

cognitive disorder

An impairment of attention, perception, memory, reasoning, judgment, and/or problem solving (i.e., thinking).

communicate

Any means by which individuals relate their wants, needs, thoughts, knowledge, and feelings to another person.

communication disorder

Speech, language, voice, resonance, cognitive, or hearing that noticeably deviates from that of other people, calls attention to itself, interferes with communication, or causes distress in both the speaker and the listener; any speech, language, voice, resonance, cognitive, or hearing impairment, disability, or handicap that interferes with a person conveying his wants, needs, thoughts, knowledge, and feelings to another person.

conductive hearing loss

A reduction in hearing sensitivity because of a disorder os the outer or middle ear.

congenital disorder

A disorder that is present at birth.

consonant

Speech sounds articulated by either stopping of the outgoing airstream or creating a narrow opening of resistance using the articulators.

context

The circumstances or events that form the environment within which something exists or takes place.

dementia

A neurological disease that causes intellectual, cognitive, and personality deterioration that is more severe than what would occur through normal aging.

disability

Any restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being; the impairment, loss, or absence of a physical or intellectual function.

disorder/impairment

Any loss or abnormality of physiological, or anatomical structure or function that interferes with normal activities.

dysphonia

A general term that means a voice disorder, with the person's voice typically sounding rough, raspy, or hoarse.

etiology

The cause of an occurrence (e.g., a medical problem that results in a disorder or disability).

expressive language

The words, grammatical structures, and meanings that a person uses verbally.

functional disorder

A problem or impairment with no known anatomical, physiological, or neurological basis that may have behavioral or emotional causes or components.

General American English(GAE)

The speech of native speakers of American English that is typical of the United States and that excludes phonological forms easily recognized as regional dialects or limited to particular ethnic or social groups, and that is not identified as a nonnative American accent; the norm of pronunciation by national radio and television broadcasters.

grammar

The rules of the use of morphology and syntax in a language.

habilitate

The process of developing a skill to be able to function within the environment; the initial learning and development of a new skill.

handicap

Loss or limitation of opportunities to take part in the life of the community on an equal level with others; a congenital or acquired physical or intellectual limitation that hinders a person from performing specific tasks.

hearing impairment

Abnormal or reduced function in hearing resulting from an auditory disorder.

hoarseness

A common symptom of dysphonia that is a combination of breathiness and harshness that affects how pleasant and smooth a voice sounds.

hypernasality/hypernasal

A resonance disorder that occurs when oral consonants and vowels enter the nasal cavity because cleft of the hard and soft palates or weakness of the soft palate, causing a person to sound like he is 'talking through the nose".

hyponasality/hyponasal

Lack of normal resonance for the three English phonemes, /m/, /n/, and ng, resulting from partial or complete obstruction in the nasal tract.

idiom

An expression in the usage of a language that is peculiar to itself either grammatically or in having a meaning that cannot be derived from the normal combination of words.

incidence

The rate at which a disorder appears in the normal population over a period, typically one year.

inner speech

The nearly constant internal monologue a person has with himself at a conscious or semi-conscious level that involves thinking in words; a conversation with oneself.

intelligibility

The degree to which a person's utterances are understood by the average listener; influenced by articulation, rate of speech, fluency, vocal quality, and intensity of voice.

language

"a socially shared code or conventional system for representing concepts through the use of arbitrary symbols[sounds and letters] and rule-governed combinations of those symbols[grammar].

language delay

An abnormal slowness in developing language skills that may result in incomplete language development.

language difference

Variations in speech and language production that are the result of a person's cultural, linguistic, and social environments.

language disorder

An impairment of receptive and/or expressive linguistic symbols (morphemes, words, semantics, syntax, or pragmatics) that affects what is said or verbally expressing wants, needs, thoughts, information, and feelings.

linguistics

The scientific study of the structure and function of language and the rules that govern language; includes the study of phonemes, morphemes, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics

modality

Any sensory avenue through which information may be received, i.e., auditory, visual, tactile, taste, and olfactory.

morpheme

The smallest unit of language having a distinct meaning, for example, a prefix, suffix, or root word.

morphology

The study of the structure (form) of words.

motor speech disorder

Impaired speech intelligibility that is caused by a neurological impairment that affects the motor (movement) planning or the strength of the articulations needed for rapid, complex movements in smooth, effortless speech.

organic disorder

A problem or impairment with a known anatomical, physiological, or neurological basis.

perception

The process of detecting, discriminating, and recognition of a stimulus.

phoneme

The shortest arbitrary unit of sound in a language that can be recognized as being distinct from other sounds in the language.

phonological disorder

Errors of phonemes that form patterns in which a child simplifies individual sounds or sound combinations.

phonology

The study of speech sounds and the system of rules underlying sound production and sound combinations in the formation of words.

pragmatics

The rules governing the use of language in social situations; includes the speaker-listener relationship and intentions and all elements in the environment surrounding the interaction- the context.

prevalence

The estimated total number of individuals diagnosed with a particular disorder at a given time in a population, or the percent of people in a population with the disorder

quality of life

A global concept that involves a persons' standard of living, personal freedom, and the opportunity to pursue happiness; a measure of a persons' ability to cope successfully with the full range of challenges encountered in daily living; the characterization of health concerns or disease effects on a persons' lifestyle and daily functioning.

receptive language

What a person understands of what is said.

rehabilitate

Restoration to normal or to as satisfactory a status as possible of impaired functions and abilities.

resonance disorder

Abnormal modification of the voice by passing through the nasal cavities during production of oral sounds (hypernasality) or not passing through the nasal cavities during production of nasal sounds (hyponasality).

semantics

The study of meaning in language conveyed by words, phrases, and sentences.

sensorineural hearing loss

A reduction of hearing sensitivity produced by disorders of the cochlear and/or the auditory nerve fibers of the vestibulocochlear nerve (VIII cranial).\

sign

An objective finding of a disease or change in condition as perceived by an examiner, such as a physician.

speech

The production of oral language using phonemes for communication through the process of respiration, phonation, resonation, and articulation.

speech disorder

Any deviation of speech outside the range of acceptable variation in a given environment.

speech-language pathologist

A professional who is specifically educated and trained to identify, evaluate, treat, and prevent speech, language, cognitive, and swallowing disorders.

Stuttering/disfluency

A disturbance in the normal flow and time of speech characterized by one or more of the following: repetitions of sounds, syllables, or words; prolongation of sounds; abnormal stoppages or 'silent blocks' within or between words; interjections of unnecessary sounds or words; circumlocutions (talking around an intended word); or sounds and words produced with excessive tension.

suprasegmentals

Voice inflections used in a language such as stress, intensity, changes in pitch, duration of a sound, and rhythm that help listeners understand the true intent of a message and that convey the emotional aspects of a message, such as happiness, sadness, fear, or surprise.

syllable

Either a single vowel (V) or a vowel and one or more consonants (C).

symptom

A subjective indication of a disease or change in condition as perceived by the patient or other nonmedical or rehabilitation specialist, such as a family member.

syndrome

A complex of signs and symptoms resulting from a common etiology or appearing together that presents a clinical picture of a disease or inherited anomaly.

syntax

Rules that dictate the acceptable sequence and combination of words in a sentence to convey meaning; the study of sentence structure.

traumatic brain injury

An acquired injury to the brain caused by an external force that results in partial or total functional disability, including physical, communication, cognitive, and psychosocial impairments.

voice disorder

Any deviation of loudness, pitch, or quality of voice that is outside the normal range of a person's age, gender, or geographic cultural background that interferes with communication, draws unfavorable attention to itself, or adversely affects the speaker or listener.

vowel

Voiced speech sounds from the unrestricted passage of the airstream through the mouth without audible stoppage or friction.

World Health Organization

An agency of the United Nations established in 1948 to further international cooperation in improving health conditions throughout the world.

physical disability

Any impairment that limits the physical functions of limbs or gross or fine motor abilities.

sensory disability

impairment of one of the senses(e.g., hearing or vision)

intellectual disability

encompasses intellectual deficits that may appear at any age.