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Unit I: Communication Disorders

Communication: any act of knowledge being shared between two or more individuals

Communication disorder: a disorder hindering the individual’s ability to communicate with like peers

  • Aphasia - difficulty in thinking about message

  • Apraxia - difficulty producing the message

  • Autism - difficulty interpreting social cues

  • ADHD - difficulty with memory

  • Hyperlexia - difficulty with reading comprehension alone

  • Dyslexia - difficulty with reading and writing comprehension


Origins of Communication:

  • From Latin, communicare → to share or make common


The role of communication:

Sender generates message (encode) → Receiver translates message (decode)

Communication = participation

75% of a person’s day is spent communicating


Verbal communication: a form of communication involving the exchange of words alone

  • Discussion: a verbal communication tool for decision-making

  • Debate: verbal communication as means of achieving an agreement or common consensus

  • Formal verbal communication: verbal communication that takes place in formal settings

  • Informal verbal communication: verbal communication that takes place in informal settings

Nonverbal communication: a form of communication taking place without any words exchanged

  1. Paralanguage: communication with tone loudness, inflection, and pitch

  2. Sign language: communication with hand gestures

    1. Commonly found in the deaf community

  3. Body language: the use of facial expressions or postures to convey an implicit message

    1. Responsible for a majority of communication

  4. Tactile communication: the use of touch as communication

  5. Proxemics: the concern surrounding space and time in communication

    1. Interpersonal distance for casual conversation is between 18 in. to 4 ft

    2. Communication distance in crowds of people is between 10 to 12 feet

  6. Physical appearance: the use of style and appearance to convey a message


Models of communication:

  1. Transmission model: the analogy of communication to telephone proposed by Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver

    1. Person + Communication = Behavior or state of mind change

    2. Intention + Different effect = Communication breakdown and failure

    3. Feedback Loop: a continuous communication back and forth between sender and receiver

  2. Speech chain: the process of encoding a message

    1. Linguistic

    2. Physiological

    3. Acoustic


Spoonerism: a slip of the tongue involving miscommunication


Classification of Communication Disorders:

  • Speech: physical production of speech

  • Language: knowledge of symbols and how to combine them

  • Developmental or congenital: a form of communication disorder present at birth, before birth, or shortly after birth

  • Acquired: a form of communication disorder caused by later life circumstances

    • Organic disorder: a subset of acquired communication disorders caused by a medical or health condition

  • Functional disorder: a communication disorder with no known cause


Language modalities:

  1. Auditory comprehension

  2. Spoken comprehension

  3. Reading comprehension

  4. Written comprehension


Epidemiology: the study of frequency in people affected by a particular disorder and why

Prevalence: how common does the disease affect a population (percentage)

Incidence: the rate of occurrence in a disease (percentage)


Professions:

  • Speech-language pathology: the study of human communication, swallowing, speech and language development, and related disorders

  • Audiology: the study of human communication by sound and of hearing, balance, and related disorders


Neuroplasticity: “if you don’t use it, you lose it”


Summary: Communication is nonstop and must be a two-way street. Language is the key to communication and must be combined with comprehension. Communication disorders distort the combination of language and comprehension, so that there are multiple communication breakdowns.