The ability to communicate and converse with language is essential for every adolescent. For adolescents, understandable speech is important for academic and social success as well as their self-esteem. Such important matters as dating, recreation, schooling and employment are extraordinarily dependent on understandable speech.
Speech is a mechanical act where an individual is able to vocalize using the muscles of the vocal apparatus in a coordinated manner. An adolescent with dysarthria has a disturbance in articulation, expression or enunciation. A teen with dysphonia has a problem with vocalization. Speech disorders comprised dysarthria, dysphonia or a combination.
Speaking involves the highly coordinated actions of the respiratory muscles, as well as the larynx, pharynx, tongue and lips. Speech may be impaired when some or all of these structures are damaged or function less than optimally. Beside the muscles noted, areas in the brain including the motor cortex, cerebellum and brain stem are important in the production of speech.
Language processes are usually a function of the left hemisphere of the brain. Although ninety percent of the population is right handed, about ninety-nine percent of right-handed adolescents have language functions in the left hemisphere.
Who is likely to develop a speech disorder?
A teen with dysphonia has problems making sounds. Of course, there may be a temporary laryngitis from an infection, and this is a type of dysphonia. Teens who abuse their voice including cheerleaders, singers or quarterbacks, may have overused their larynx. These teens may have a temporary dysphonia. Polyps on the vocal cords can cause dysphonia. Damage to the nerve that controls the vocal cords may also lead to dysphonia. In adults, especially those, who smoke or chew tobacco, dysphonia may occur due to cancer of the larynx.
A teen with dysarthria is not able to form or produce understandable speech. An alcohol-intoxicated adolescent may have temporary dysarthria. Teens who are born with Down syndrome have a narrow hard palate and relatively large tongue. These adolescents may not form their words well to have clear speech. Teens who are born with an opening in their palate termed cleft palate also have dysarthria. And teens who are born with deafness will have a speech problem since they are not able to hear and then mimic the speech of others. Youth with cerebral palsy, due to brain injury around the time of birth, may have damage to their brain speech centers or the muscles that help to form words.
Adolescents may acquire dysarthria from illness or accident. For example, teens who develop Tourette’s syndrome may have their speech punctuated by coughs or grunts. Adolescents who develop a temporary paralysis of their lip due to Bell’s palsy may have difficulty forming words. Adolescents who develop herpes encephalitis, lymphoma or even abuse cocaine may develop a speech disorder. Some psychiatric illnesses including schizophrenia may have an associated speech disorder. And accidents that involve speech production areas may also lead to speech disorders. A teen who has cardio respiratory arrest from a near drowning may acquire a speech disorder. And amateur of professional boxers may develop speech disorders from recurrent head injuries.
What are the symptoms of speech disorder?
If the teen has dysphonia, then there is a problem in the production of sounds. The voice may be absent completely or significantly modified in volume or quality. The lack of understandable speech whether it is due to the formation of words, the flow of words or sequencing of words would be symptomatic of teens with dysarthria.
How is a speech disorder evaluated?
The teen’s primary clinician should perform a good history and physical examination. This information should be provided by the teen, if possible, as well as relatives and friends as appropriate. Information regarding the onset of the speech disorder, the teen’s past health and illnesses, medications as well as the past psychiatric history are important features in the history. A good general physical examination is needed. Depending on the nature of the teen’s symptoms, he or she may be referred to specialists including a neurologist, otolaryngologist or a speech/language pathologist.
Each of these specialists may perform diagnostic tests to evaluate the speech disorder.
How is a speech disorder treated?
The treatment of a speech disorder will depend on the cause of the disorder. In some localities, newborns are screened for deafness. If a newborn infant is found to have deafness, then early intervention may allow the development of normal speech. Children who are born with cleft palate are referred to tertiary hospitals where a multidisciplinary team will correct the anatomic defects that will allow the patient to develop normal speech.
Teens who acquire a speech disorder need to have the cause of the disorder treated, if possible and also have speech therapy as needed. For example, an adolescent with schizophrenia with an associated speech defect will need the primary illness treated. If the speech is not improved when the schizophrenia is controlled, then speech therapy may be indicated. If a teen has dysphonia due to a vocal cord nodule, then excision of the nodule is needed to treat the disorder.
Adolescents who have a speech disorder may receive accommodation in their academic work as well as school-based speech therapy. The appropriate counseling offices in the school should be apprised of teen’s condition.
How is a speech disorder prevented?
There are many causes of speech disorders in adolescents; some may be prevented while other causes may not be prevented. The following table outlines some of the actions teens may take to prevent some of the acquired causes of speech disorder:
Cause of speech disorder
Possible prevention
Encephalitis due to genital herpes infection
Safer sex methods or abstinence
AIDS
Safer sex methods or abstinence
Substance abuse
Avoidance of substances including: cocaine and tobacco
Brain injury
Proper safety equipment during
Sports or cycling;
Buddy system during swimming; seatbelts
Voice abuse
Reasonable use of voice during singing, athletics and other activities
Related topics:
Academics, accidents, AIDS, alcohol, athletic equipment, Bell’s palsy, bicycle safety, cerebral palsy, dating, disabilities, encephalitis, genetic disease, head injuries, hearing loss, herpes, jobs, schizophrenia, smoking and tobacco, stuttering
