RP326 Permanent Tongue Twisters

 RP326 Permanent Tongue Twisters

The way that our body hears, understands, and produces speech is extremely complex, and like any other complex process, it can malfunction sometimes. This is called a language disorder, and it can have serious consequences when it comes to communicating with our fellow human beings.
Language disorders come in two forms: developmental and acquired. Developmental language disorders occur naturally in some children when they are growing up. They can affect the growth of speech organs such as the larynx, vocal cords, or the parts of the brain that are responsible for communication. Acquired language disorders can happen to anyone, no matter one's age. They are most often caused by head trauma or a lack of oxygen to the brain.
Some language disorders come in both developmental and acquired forms. Take stuttering, for example. Stuttering is a disorder where the flow of someone's speech is constantly interrupted. The first sound of a word might be repeated ("g-g-g-go"), or lengthened ("mmmmmake"). Sometimes, the word cannot leave the mouth at all.
Most of the time, stuttering is a developmental language disorder that emerges in children, more often boys, around the age of three. Eighty percent of these children eventually stop stuttering before they become adults. However, there are rare instances when stuttering can be an acquired disorder. In these cases, a head trauma, a stroke, or drug use can cause sudden stuttering in an adult.
Aphasia is another type of acquired language disorder. Much like acquired stuttering, a person can develop aphasia after suffering a head trauma or a stroke. The symptoms of aphasia are extremely diverse. Some of them are simple, such as difficulty pronouncing words or using complete sentences. Others are quite serious, such as the inability to read or write. Some other symptoms are just downright strange, such as using nonsense words in place of real ones.
The good news is that treatment for language disorders is improving all the time. Although most disorders cannot be cured, they can usually be reduced. Speech therapists help patients to improve the accuracy and clarity of their sounds—and, equally importantly, their confidence.