Oral Impairments

Oral Impairments

The ability to speak and be fully articulate can be limited by a number of conditions. A communication disorder can be the result of developmental disorders such as Specific Language Impairment or stammering, it can be a consequence of, or be comorbid with other conditions such as deafness, it can be acquired through a head injury and stroke, it can be the result of degenerative disorders such as muscular dystrophy or it can be a side effect of physical damage to the head and neck as the result of cancer.

According to Project Ideal[1] communication disorders can be split into two categories: speech impairments (including articulation, fluency and voice disorders) and language disorders (including difficulties in understanding or using language). Either can be the result of physical impediments or be of neurological or psychological in origin. Koslo, E.[2] distinguishes between the speech impediments and language disorders when explaining that the former occurs when an individual has problems producing sounds while the latter arises as a difficulty understanding language. The two conditions can occur together.

 

Incidence:

Fewer national agencies appear to collect statistics on the incidence of oral impairments in comparison with other impairments, however the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) (2016) estimates that in the US approximately 7.5 million (2.3%) people have voice disorders while Morris, Meier, Griffin, Branda and Phelan (2016) using data from the US 2012 National Health Interview Survey on non-institutionalised respondents found 3% of the sample stated they had problems with speech, 7.6% with voice and 1.5% had language impairments. These reported rates were higher than the rates of diagnosis which were 0.7%, 1.3% and 0.35% respectively. These figures may overestimate the incidence of oral impairments because the data includes children, many of whom may grow out of their communication impairments, and because temporary illnesses, such as laryngitis, were included in the measure of voice impairment. Morris et al. (2016) also found that female respondents reported a higher incidence of voice problems than males.

Alaraifi, Amayreh and Saleh (2014) in a study of 400 randomly selected Arabic speaking undergraduate students attending the University of Jordan found that 7.5% of students had speech disorders (4% had voice disorders, 3% had articulation disorders and 0.5% had fluency disorders).

 

Characteristics:

Alaraifi et al. (2014) state that in their clinical experience individuals with speech disorders face difficulties in education and in the workplace, but did not find a significant relationship between students’ speech disorder and their educational performance and speculate that this might be because there was little oral work as part of their studies.

Craig and Tran (2006) found that adults who have a stammer were more likely to have symptoms indicative of chronic social anxiety than non-stammering controls with 40% of people with stammers experiencing heightened anxiety in contexts where they are expected to speak. They also found that the severity of the chronic anxiety experienced by those who stammer is significantly higher than non-stammers. Butler (2013) found that students with stammers may avoid modules, classes or assessments where they would have to speak and are prepared to accept that this may affect their grades.

 

Impact on teaching and learning and assessment:

As outlined by Alaraifi et al. (2014) and Morris et al. (2016) communication impairments can affect an individual’s life in a range of ways, and consequently, a student’s ability to study.

 

Resource requirements/ accommodations

We should not assume that students with communication impairments are reluctant to talk. However, for students who are hesitant to speak and in order to try to prevent students avoiding environments where they need to speak as detailed by Butler (2013) we could offer an alternative forms of assessment to students with oral impairments. For example a presentation could be delivered directly to the staff member, rather than in class, or the student could be offered the opportunity to submit a video of the presentation or to provide a transcript of what they would have said in a presentation. In group work we can ask students to choose their fellow group members so that all students feel comfortable or, if required, we could set an alternative assessment.

In seminars and tutorials we can make it clear that students can choose whether to participate verbally or not.

In classes we reassure students that they do not have to verbally participate or leave time at the end of a session for students to ask questions so that they do not have to speak in front of the whole class.

 

 

References

[1] http://www.projectidealonline.org/v/speech-language-impairments/ 27/04/2020

[2] https://www.understood.org/en/learning-thinking-differences/child-learning-disabilities/communication-disorders/difference-between-speech-impairment-and-language-disorder 29/04/2020

 

 

Next >>