Sound is the key to understanding. It’s what we use when talking with one another, but it can also be used for creating art or music that means something on its own terms! A speech disorder refers to any condition affecting how you speak- whether your voice sounds funny (like rubber) and doesn’t make sense anymore; or if there are just too many errors in between “words.”

Speech is a complex process that involves many parts of our body, including the head and neck. It’s an act where you need to coordinate all these muscles together for communication with others!

This article explores what speech disorders are and the different types. It also covers symptoms, causes, diagnosis as well as treatment for these conditions!

Speech Problem Definition

The inability to articulate sounds can lead people down a path where they may never develop an ability for standard speech. This is why it’s important that these disorders are distinguished from language issues!

This disorders prevent people from forming correct speech sounds, while language difficulties affect a person’s ability to learn words or understand what others say.

Those with speech and language disorders find it more difficult to express their thoughts or feelings.

Kinds of Speech Disorder

Some types of speech disorders affect people of all ages. These include stuttering, apraxia (a disorder that causes problems with vocalization), and dysarthria (in which there is an issue while simultaneously producing sound or movement during speaking). We discuss each type below:

Apraxia

The brain is responsible for every action we take, including speech. Most of the time, our brains aren’t even aware that they’re sending signals to make words come out of our mouths!

The human voice is a complex and fascinating thing. It’s not just about sound waves, but also the vibration of air in your throat as well as shaping lips or moving around so you can say what needs saying!

Apraxia can affect anyone, anywhere. It affects the whole body, and any part of it may be damaged, including organs like the heart or lungs, which require movement for their proper functioning.

A person suffering from verbal apraxia would have trouble forming sounds correctly even when they know what word should come out because this type specifically refers to motor skills involved in speech production-voicing (articulation) as well as hand movements needed before speaking output.

Stuttering

People who stutter have a speech disorder that disrupts their words. They can experience any or all of the following types disruption:

Repetitions

Here’s a fun fact for you! Repetitions are when people repeat sounds, words or even just letters. For example, if someone says the word “ah” over again in rapid succession, it might sound like this: 

 ‘ AAH – hah AAAA’. This is called repetition because they’re repeating their vowel sound and not necessarily making any other changes to what was said before them (or at least none that we can understand).

Blocks

Blocks are a common occurrence for those who struggle to make the right sounds. When someone has trouble producing certain speech segments, it can cause blocks which prevent them from saying what they want or need; this may lead you into feeling stuck in your words!

Prolongation 

People with prolongation tend to speak very slowly and carefully. They often use droning noises, long pauses between words or sounds–even entire phrases! This can make it hard for other people who are trying to act quickly when they need urgent information from you (ease-of mind).

Stuttering can have a significant impact on people’s lives, and it is important to know how you respond when experiencing stutter-like symptoms. When under stress or excited about something that is happening in your life right now, for example, if there was an event where someone said “I’m so happy”, then this would trigger unexpected emotions which could make more severe than usual sounds come out while trying not to cry because they are feeling overwhelmed by joy!

Stuttering causes both physical and psychological symptoms to occur at the same time. These can include:

• tension in the face and shoulders
• rapid blinking
• lip tremors
• clenched fists
• sudden head movements

There are two main cases of stuttering:

Developmental stuttering

Developmental stuttering is a type of speech impediment that affects children and young people. The incidence rates for this vary by genes, with those who have been reported as having an increased likelihood due to their family history or personal maker profile being more likely than others report show develop developmental difficulties in speaking clearly while attempting new words at early ages.

Stress can make us speak faster, but it doesn’t always help the sound come out right – some say there are actually two types: forced vocalization (or “stammering”) where you pant through pursed lips like I’m doing now; topical vowels—those made with lots happening near your nose.

Neurogenic stuttering

The brain is the key to speech coordination. When damage occurs in this structure, individuals may experience neurogenic stuttering, which prevents them from producing fully-controlled words and sentences without hesitation or prolonging sounds like “s” with longer pauses between syllables due to their inability to properly coordinate muscles throughout different regions simultaneously while inhaling/exhaling air through pursed lips at regular intervals during inhalations (breathing).

Dysarthria

The brain controls everything in your body, including how you speak. When there’s damage to this area of our brains, it can cause muscle weakness that makes speaking very difficult for people during certain activities like eating or drinking liquids because they need their muscles controlled carefully and not too much force is put on them while moving around quickly otherwise pain will result from pushing out air bubbles between words due lack breadth motion.

Symptoms of dysarthria can be quite debilitating. The most common symptom are the following:

• slurred speech
• Mumbling
• speaking too slowly or too quickly
• soft or quiet speech
• difficulty moving the mouth or tongue

Treatment

Speech-language pathologists can recommend a variety of treatments to patients with speech disorders.

There are many types of speech therapy exercises that you can do to help with word recognition. One type is called “familiarity training,” which focuses on building familiarity by repeating words or sounds over time until they become easier for your brain.”

The easiest way to improve your voice is with physical exercises that strengthen the muscles involved in producing speech sounds. This will make it easier for you to speak clearly and loud without having any trouble at all!

Target Selection

Target selection is a process of familiarizing yourself with particular speech patterns so you can ignore the ones that make your mouth do funny things. There are many different targets for therapy, including difficult words and sounds which may trigger disruptions in vocal cords!

Contextual Utilization

SLPs teach people to recognize speech sounds in different syllable-based contexts, so they can more easily identify and produce the sound when it is needed.

Contrast Therapy

The goal of contrast therapy is to help patients break down barriers by exposing them simultaneously to word pairs that contain one or more different speech sounds. An example might be “beat” and ‘feet,” or “dough” and show.”

Oral-Motor Therapy

The oral-motor therapy approach focuses on the development of muscle strength, control and breath. By working with these exercises people can improve their fluency which produces smoother speech that sounds more natural!

Ear Devices

Whether you have a mild case or severe stuttering, there are ways to help ease the symptoms. One way is with ear devices that play back altered versions of your own voice, so it sounds like someone else speaks along instead! In addition, some people wear an actual sound inside their ears during speeches and other vocal exercises, which can be distracting at first but becomes easier over time as long they continue using them regularly under guidance from professionals who know what’s best for each individual patient/individual user depending on severity levels.

Medication

When a person experiences stressful situations, it can trigger an anxiety disorder and result in more pronounced symptoms of their speech disorders. Anxiety medications may help reduce the severity for some people with these conditions as well!