SPEECH DISORDERS IN CHILDREN

Usually the acquisition of language is a natural process that each child follows at his own pace, even causing speech delays that do not affect his subsequent development.

Although on certain occasions there are different speech disorders in children frequently associated with difficulties in interaction with their environment or delayed cognitive development.

Dysphonia, a disorder that causes decreased voice quality. Functional dysphonia is caused by vocal abuse (overexertion), poor vocal technique, or both causes. In the case of total absence of voice, we talk about aphonia. Organic dysphonia includes different pathologies and laryngeal alterations or dysfunctions that cause the tone or timbre of the voice to be altered.
Dyslalias or joint disorders of certain sounds. There are several types. Evolutionary dyslalia is the one that takes place in the developmental phase of children's language, when they are not yet able to pronounce certain sounds (often the "r", "ch" ...). Functional disdalia is the erroneous joint produced by a malfunction of the peripheral organs of speech, without any injury or malformation of them. The audiogenic dyslalia is the alteration in the pronunciation produced by a defective hearing. Finally, organic dyslalias are caused by speech organs or a brain injury.
Dysglossia, a defect in the articulation of the phonemes due to congenital anomalies (cleft lip, cleft palate ...) or acquired in the peripheral organs of speech. These anomalies make linguistic functioning difficult in people without detectable neurological or sensory effects.
Dysphasia or specific language development disorder, a disorder characterized by the inability to use it. The causes are not well known, but it could be caused by brain disorders. Dysphasia does not evolve spontaneously towards normalization and is resistant to speech therapy intervention. It can appear in other pathologies, such as: mental deficiency, deafness, autism or psychosis. And it can be accompanied by other linguistic alterations, such as communication disorders, lack of game development, memory problems, attention, hyperactivity ...
Dysphemia or stuttering, a communication disorder (rather than language) that is characterized by involuntary interruptions of speech that are accompanied by muscular tension in the face and neck, fear and stress. These external manifestations are the visible expression of the interaction of certain organic, psychological and social factors. It usually begins between the second and fourth year of life, so it is often confused with the difficulties of age when talking. Although it can also be a neurogenic or acquired stuttering, due to a brain injury. Psychogenic stuttering is the least common, caused by severe trauma.
Aphasia: This is the alteration or deprivation of speech caused by a brain injury or brain infection in a person who has already acquired the language. People with aphasia are unable to speak or understand (the term comes from the Greek ἀφασία: "wordless").
Elective or selective mutism: This is the total and persistent absence of speech in certain situations or in front of certain people. Children with mutism generally have good language development, are perfectly capable of speaking and understanding language, but "mute" in certain circumstances (for example in school). It is like an extreme form of shyness, but of greater intensity and duration. It differs from disorders such as Autism and Asperger's Syndrome because these disorders do not depend on specific circumstances, the child does not speak independently of the context, since communication and social interaction are severely altered.

These are some language disorders in children that we must detect as soon as possible to act on them as much as possible and help them overcome them, as many of them are solved over time and with certain exercises and treatments.