CHAPTER 2

TYPICAL AND DISORDERED COMMUNICATION

Chapter Learning Goals

  1. Explain the role of culture and environment in communication.
  2. Describe what is involved in human communication.
  3. Demonstrate how communication disorders may be classified.
  4. Name some types of communication disorders.
  5. Discuss and estimate the frequency of occurrence of communication disorders.

Introduction

Communication is composed of multiple processes and is influenced by cultural factors. Any aspect of communication can be impaired.

Content Outline

HUMAN COMMUNICATION

The Social Animal

Communication: An exchange of ideas between sender(s) and receiver(s).

Sociolinguistics: How cultural identity, setting, and participants influence communication.

Cultural Identity

Refers to our language and cultural communities (nationality, age, gender, ethnicity, etc.).

Setting and Participants

Setting: Location in which communication occurs.

Participants: Our communication partners.

MEANS OF COMMUNICATION

Language

Language is a socially shared tool, rule-governed, generative, and dynamic.

Generative means that each utterance is freshly created.

Dynamic means that languages change over time.

Language is used for relating to others and accomplishing various objectives.

Grammar refers to the rules of a language.

Linguistic intuition is the recognition of "right" or "wrong" grammar by native speakers.

All languages have three primary components: Form, Content, and Use.

Form consists of phonology, morphology, and syntax.

  • Phonologyis the sound system of a language.
  • Phonotactic rules specify how sounds can be arranged in words in a language.
  • Morphologyinvolves the structure of words.
  • Morphemes are the smallest grammatical units in a language.
  • Free morphemes may stand alone.
  • Bound morphemes change the meaning of the original words and can only be attached to free morphemes.
  • Syntaxis how words are arranged in a sentence in a given language.

Content consists of semantics.

  • Semantics refers to the meaning of language.
  • Semantic features are pieces of meaning that define a particular word.

Use consists of pragmatics.

  • Pragmatics can refer to how and why we use language.
  • Pragmaticrules vary with culture. Sample rules in American English:
  • Only one person speaks at a time.
  • Do not interrupt.
  • Each utterance should be relevant.
  • Each speech act should provide new information.
  • Politeness forms reflect the relationship of the speakers.
  • Topics of conversation must be established, maintained, and terminated.
  • The speaker should avoid vagueness and ambiguity.
  • The listener should provide feedback reflecting comprehension of message.

Speech

Speech is the acoustic representation of language. Articulation, fluency, and voice are features that interact to influence the speech production signal.

Articulationis the way speech sounds are formed.

Fluencyis the smooth, forward flow of communication, influenced by rhythm and rate.

  • Rate is the speed at which we talk.
  • Rate and rhythm are components of prosody, or speech suprasegmentals.

Voice can reveal things about the speaker or the speaker’s meaning. Its components are pitch, loudness, and quality.

  • A hoarse voice might communicate that the speaker is a smoker (quality).
  • A generally loud voice might communicate strength (loudness/intensity).
  • Stress on different words in a sentence or syllables in words can change meaning.
  • Pitch is a listener’s perception of how high or low a sound is (frequency)
  • Habitual pitch is the basic tone that an individual uses most of the time.
  • Intonation is the pitch movement within an utterance.

Nonverbal Communication

About 2/3 of human meaning exchange is nonverbal.

Nonverbal: Prosodic features and nonvocal communication features.

Artifacts: How you look, your clothes, your possessions, music you listen to, etc.

Kinesics: The way we move our body, or body language.

  • Explicit movements are clearly defined.
  • Implicit movements are more general or subtle.

Space and Time

  • Proxemicsis the physical distance between people as it affects communication.
  • Tactilesare touching behaviors.
  • Chronemics is the effect of time on communication.

COMMUNICATION THROUGH THE LIFESPAN

Early communication between infants and caregivers fosters speech and language development.

Language proficiency is critical to development of higher cognitive skills.

Speech and language skills change throughout a person’s life.

Modes of communication may change, as in use of computers, cellphones, text messaging, etc.

The addition of new vocabulary contributes to changes within a language.

Competent communicators adapt to changes in the language and the communication process.

Language has a strong biological basis, but this alone is insufficient to explain language learning.

The process of learning speech and language is social.

Child-caregiver interactions vary with culture, but each is sufficient for language learning.

COMMUNICATION IMPAIRMENTS

ASHA: Disorders of speech (articulation, voice, resonance, fluency), orofacial, myofunctional patterns, language, swallowing, cognitive communication, hearing, and balance.

Reading, writing, and manual communication systems are also included.

Etiology is the cause/origin of a problem, and may be used to classify a communication disorder.

The time at which a communication disorder occurs may be used for descriptive purposes.

Congenital: Present at birth.

Acquired: The result of illness, accident, or environmental circumstances later in life.

Severity is also used to characterize communication disorders, ranging from mild to profound.

Variations in communication are not impairments.

Dialects: Differences that reflect a particular regional, social, cultural, or ethnic identity.

Language Disorders

Disorders of form

Errors in phonology, morphology, and/or syntax. Examples:

  • Disorder of phonology: Not producing word endings.
  • Disorder of morphology: Incorrect use of past tense or plural markers.
  • Disorder of syntax: Incorrect word order and run-on sentences.

Disorders of content

Limited vocabulary, misuse of words, or word-finding problems.

Difficulty understanding and using abstract language.

Disorders of use:

Poor pragmatics can include:

  • Difficulty staying on topic.
  • Providing inappropriate or incongruent responses to questions.
  • Continually interrupting the conversational partner.

Speech Disorders

Disorders of articulation

The production of speech sounds is affected.

  • Dysarthria is a speech disorder caused by paralysis, weakness, or poor coordination of the speech musculature.
  • Apraxiais a speech disorder that is due to neuromotor programming difficulties.

Disorders of fluency

The smooth, uninterrupted flow of speech is affected.

  • Developmental disfluency: Speech patterns common to young children (~age 3).
  • Fillers: Examples include “er,” “um,” and “ya know.”
  • Hesitations: Unexpected pauses.
  • Repetitions: Sounds or words are repeated, as in “g-go-go.”
  • Prolongations: Excessively long duration, as in “wwwwwwwell.”
  • Stuttering: When these speech behaviors exceed or are qualitatively different from the norm or are accompanied by excessive tension or struggle behavior.

Fluency disorders are generally first noticed around age six.

Adult onset of stuttering can also occur.

The causes of nonfluent speech are typically unclear.

Voice disorders

The quality, pitch, and loudness of speech are affected.

  • Congenital physiological conditions can affect voice, but are relatively rare.
  • More common is vocal abuse.
  • Hoarseness can result from excessive yelling, screaming, or loud singing.
  • Habits such as physical tension, coughing, throat clearing, smoking, and drinking alcohol can disrupt normal voice production.
  • Can result in pathology such as polyps, nodules, or ulcers.
  • Other causes: Disease, trauma, allergies, and neuromuscular or endocrine disorders.

Hearing Disorders

Deafness

Results when the ability to perceive sound is so limited that the primary sensory input forcommunication is not the auditory channel. It can be congenital or acquired.

Interventions

  • Total communication is considered the most effective.
  • Assistive listening devices, cochlear implants, and auditory training are helpful.

Hard of Hearing

People who are hard of hearing depend primarily on audition for communication.

Hearing loss may be temporary or permanent.

Hearing loss is categorized in terms of severity, laterality, and type.

  • Severity may range from mild to severe.
  • The loss can be bilateral (involving both hears) or unilateral (involving one ear).
  • The type of loss can be conductive, sensorineural, or mixed.
  • Conductive: caused by damage to the outer or middle ear.
  • Sensorineural: Problems with the inner ear and/or auditory nerve.
  • Mixed: Both conductive and sensorineural losses.

Auditory Processing Disorders (APD)

Individuals with APD have normal hearing but difficulty understanding speech.

Difficulty keeping up with conversation, understanding speech in noise, discriminating and identifying speech sounds, and integrating speech with nonverbals.

Etiology is often unknown, but can be due to tumor, disease, or brain injury.

Can occur in children or adults.

HOW COMMON ARE COMMUNICATION DISORDERS?

What is "Normal"?

Variability is the norm.

“Typical” is a better term when we mean “like most others of the same group.”

Communication Disorders as Secondary to Other Disabilities.

Most communication disorders are secondary to other disabilities. For example:

Children with cleft palate also have physical health problems.

People with cerebral palsy have more global motor deficits.

Children with learning disabilities may also have academic and social difficulties.

Estimates of Prevalence

Prevalence: The number/percentage of people within a specified population who have a particular disorder or condition at a given point in time.

About 17% of the U.S. population has acommunication disorder.

About 11% have a hearing loss.

About 6% have a speech, voice, or language disorder.

6-10 million Americans have swallowing disorders; many have communication impairments.

The percentage of people with hearing loss increases with age.

Summary

Communication is an exchange of ideas, involving message transmission and response. It is strongly influenced by culture and environment. The primary vehicle of human communication is language. It may be spoken, written, or signed. The three major components are form (phonology, morphology, syntax), content (semantics), and use (pragmatics). Nonverbals play a large role in communication. Any aspect of communication can be impaired. About 17% of Americans have a communication impairment.

Suggested Resources

Print Resources

Battle, D. (2001). Communication disorders in multicultural populations (3rd ed.). Maryland Heights, MO: Elsevier.

Klein, M.D., & Chen, D. (2000). Working with young children from culturally diverse backgrounds. New York:Delmar.

Nicolosi, L., Harryman, E., & Kresheck. (2003). Terminology of communication disorders: Speech- Language-Hearing (5th ed.). Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Oller, J., Oller, S., & Badon, L. (2009). Cases: Introducing communication disorders across the lifespan. San Diego, CA: Plural.

Audiovisual and Online

Alvarez, L. (Director/Producer), & Kolker, A. (Director/Producer) (1987). American tongues. New York, NY: Insight Media.

Be careful. Screen this one first. We recommend editing thismovie. We recognize the aim of just letting people talk, but some portions will be offensive.

Gillam, R.B., Hoffman, L., Peña, E., Thibodeau, L., & Eyer, J. (1999). Case Studies in Communication Sciences and Disorders: Child Language [CD-ROM]. New York:Insight Media.

Schrank, J. (Writer) (1998). Reading people: The unwritten language of the body [VHS]. Lake Zurich, IL: Learning Seed.

Shakespeare, T. (Writer/Presenter), & Waldock, J. (Director) (2002). The unusual suspects: How society and people with disabilities regard each other[VHS/DVD]. Princeton, NJ: Films for the Humanities and Sciences.

American Speech-Language Hearing Foundation (2008). Available from

ASHAWeb:

Medline:

eMedicine:

Suggested Activities

  1. Identify the different speech communities represented in your class. What variations in communication can be noted based on this?
  2. Based on student experience, attempt to determine the prevalence of communication disorders. Consider: How many students have a disorder? How many have relatives in this situation? Friends? Acquaintances? What percentage is this of the estimated pool of individuals? What type of disorder is most common? What are the weaknesses in this procedure?
  3. Use a computer and projector to visit websites for various disabilities. Often sites have video links with examples of various disorders.