Patients with communication difficulties - 1 Flashcards
List some components of communication
verbal non-verbal (eye-contact, facial expression, gestures, body language) Listening written touch visual aids music Communication is interactional, collaborative and co-constructed
What are the different types of communication?
- Speech Vs Language
- Comprehension (receptive language) vs expression (expressive language)
- Spoken Vs written
- Pragmatics
What is the difference between speech and language?
Speech is just the verbal sounds (the understanding and the words and sentences they are saying are fine, but the sounds abnormal)
Language is the cognitive part ie understanding grammar
(from the internet) give examples of the components of speech
- speaking in a clearly and in an interesting and meaningful way
- speaking without hesitating too much and without repetition of words or sounds
What are the two types of language?
Receptive (comprehension ie understanding)
Expressive (expression)
(from the internet) What are the components of receptive language?
- processing and making sense of what people say
- understanding the words being spoken
- understanding the rules of grammar used
(from the internet) What are the components of expressive language?
- having words to describe objects, actions and attributes
- Using words to build up sentences
- using sentences to build up conversations and narratives
- following the rules of grammar
Which aspects of communication can go wrong?
- speech
- language (expressive or receptive)
- pragmatics
- voice
How can a speech disorder present?
- dysarthria
- apraxia/dyspraxia (NOT aphasia as this is a language difficulty)
- stammer/stutter (spearate entity from apraxia, aphasia and dysarthria)
What is apraxia/dyspraxia?
affects muscle coordination, putting sounds in the right order to produce intelligible speech, or speech planning. Individuals can struggle with consonant clusters (lorry), rhythm, and stress, and may generally experience difficulties with aspects related to the prosody of language, so they sound monotonous. adding or leaving out sounds, difficulty saying longer and more complex words, especially those with multiple syllables, inconsistency in speech utterances (saying the same words correctly and incorrectly in one sitting)
affects the coordination of the muscles of the face, throat and mouth. Unlike in dysarthria where these muscles are weakened or even paralyzed, apraxia impacts on the brain’s ability to send signals to the muscles, so thoughts are not always correctly translated into speech. People who have apraxia know the words they want to use but can struggle to actually say them. An individual with apraxia may intend to use one word and say another one instead. It might take them several tries to get a word right and sometimes they may have to give up. There can be moments in which people with apraxia attempt to speak but no language comes out, or the sounds are in the wrong order and aren’t recognizable as intelligible speech. In severe cases of apraxia, speech may be so limited that individuals must resort to alternatives forms of communication, such as writing or typing, in order to communicate with others.
What is aphasia/dysphasia?
In theory, aphasia is a total loss of language ability, whereas dysphasia is a partial loss, but in practice both words are used somewhat interchangeably. can be expressive or receptive. If expressive, not able to find the words they need to express themselves in speech or in writing, or they might use the wrong words and not realize it. If receptive, don’t always understand what other people are saying and can finding listening and reading challenging. In Wernicke’s aphasia, a person may speak fluently but what they are saying often does not make sense.
What is dysarthria?
imprecise/slurred speech, caused by weakness or paralysis of the muscles of the lips, tongue, throat and face.
What are the causes of speech difficulties?
- stroke
- cerebral palsy
- Acute brain injury
- motor neuron disease
- unknown
Give examples of receptive language difficulties
- trouble understanding some words/longer phrases/grammar
- trouble understanding complex info
- can be situation specific (eg easier to follow conversation with one person in a quiet setting)
- can relate to spoken or written language
Give examples of expressive language difficulties
- no spoken or written language at all
- unreliable yes/no
- word finding difficulties
- trouble building a complete sentence
- trouble with certain grammatical structures
- can relate to spoken or written info
