Speech symptoms are disorders of phonational, articulatory, and communicative functions that occur in various diseases of the speech apparatus, nervous system, and ENT organs. They include voice disorders (hoarseness, nasal twang), sound reproduction (substitutions, distortions, omissions), speech rhythm (stuttering), coherent speech (echolalia, embolophrasia), etc. These symptoms are diagnosed as part of a patient’s examination of the underlying pathology. The elimination of such manifestations in most cases is carried out by speech therapy. Treatment can be supplemented with pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, physiotherapy.
Speech symptoms depend on the type of disorder and the level of damage to the speech apparatus: its central link (brain) or peripheral department (respiratory organs, vocal formation, articulation). According to these criteria , in practical speech therapy , speech symptoms are divided into the following groups:
1. Symptoms of expressive speech disorder. They are associated with difficulty pronouncing sounds, words, phrases. They occur in most speech pathologies: dyslalia, stuttering, dysarthria, alalia, aphasia. Include:
2. Symptoms of impressive speech disorder. They are characteristic of sensory alalia and acoustic-gnostic aphasia. These include misunderstanding of the addressed speech, disorder of auditory attention, logorrhea.
3. Symptoms of writing disorders. They occur in various types of dysgraphy and dyslexia. They are represented by substitutions, omissions of letters, mirror writing, misunderstanding of the meaning of what was read, the disintegration of the writing skill (agraphy) and reading (Alexia).
Speech symptoms can occur not only in the framework of various speech pathology, but also in a number of neurological syndromes, mental disorders. In this regard, they require a thorough differential diagnosis and a differentiated therapeutic approach. In addition to speech therapists, clinicians are involved in the correction of pathological speech symptoms: neurologists, phoniatrists, psychotherapists.
Speech comprehension disorder occurs in a number of different speech and neuropsychiatric syndromes: alalia, aphasia, autism, oligophrenia, dementia, etc. It is characterized by a lack of adequate response to audible speech, inability to follow instructions, increased attention exhaustion. Sometimes understanding is partially disrupted. Own speech production may be preserved or absent. To determine the causes…
Glossophobia is a pathological fear of speaking in front of people. Accompanies the course of stuttering, mutism, dyslalia, sometimes occurs within the framework of social phobia. With glossophobia, there is a constant fear of speech seizures, fear of being ridiculed by others, a painful fixation on a speech defect, which is why patients avoid communication…
Logorrhea is a specific speech disorder consisting of uncontrolled incoherent speech production. Senseless, unregulated volitional volubility is combined with an accelerated pace of speech. The symptom is characteristic of sensory alalia, acoustic-gnostic aphasia, schizophrenia, manic disorder, dementia, etc. Diagnosis of logorrhea is carried out by speech therapists, psychiatrists within the framework of the main speech…
Coprolalia is an unintentional, inappropriate, pathologically intrusive utterance of swear words and obscene language. It occurs in a number of mental and neurological diseases: Tourette’s syndrome, schizophrenia, manic syndrome, neuroinfections, Kleine-Levin syndrome, in the post-stroke period. It may be a side effect of taking neuroleptics. Coprolalia is diagnosed by clinical methods (conversation, observation), identification of…
Dysprosody is a disorder of intonation, rhythmic, melodic characteristics of speech production. When prosodic components are violated, speech becomes monotonous, hypophonic, arrhythmic, devoid of emotional coloring and expressiveness. Dysprosody is present in the clinic of dysarthria, rhinolalia, tempo-rhythmic disorders, Parkinson’s disease, foreign accent syndrome. Diagnostic tactics involve neurological, psychological-psychiatric, speech therapy examination. Treatment is carried…
Agrammatism is the inability to construct or perceive grammatical constructions. Agrammatism occurs in oral speech and in writing. They are characteristic of the early period of speech development, as well as people with general speech underdevelopment, bilingualism, aphasia, hearing impairment, dysgraphy. It is diagnosed during speech therapy examination of oral and written speech, neuropsychological testing.…
