Speech Impairment

	Speech Impairment
Characteristics	Speech impairment is a communication disorder that affects the ability to speak, read, write, and understand. There are three basic types of speech impairments Articulation disorder-errors in the production of sounds Omissions: saying oo instead of shoe Substitutions: saying wabbit instead of rabbit Distortions: saying thun instead of sun Fluency disorder-errors in the rhythm and timing of speech Stuttering: rapid fire repetitions, pauses, or drawn out syllables, words, or phrases. Stuttering is the most common type of fluency disorder. Cluttering: rapid or irregular speaking rate, excessively fast and jerky speech, improperly placed pauses Voice disorder- irregular production of vocal quality including pitch, volume, or duration Other characteristics include Low self esteem Inadequate social skills Low vocabulary Difficultly writing down ideas Poor spelling skills Isolation from peers If a child’s speech seems to be delayed within the first 4 years, which may include such delays as not hearing a parent calling them from the other room, irregular vocal quality, very limited vocabulary, or difficultly speaking, a parent should express these concerns to their physician. One of the first steps will be to have a hearing test which can cause speech and language disorders. Depending on results activities will be suggested to practice at home with the child. If problems consist, more test and evaluations will occur to possibly diagnosis the child as speech impaired. Depending on the type of speech impairment will classify which characteristics are associated with the individual special needs student. Overall though the most common associated characteristics with speech impairment are low self esteem and difficultly with social skills.
Misconceptions	A common misconception about this special need is that there exists a lack of intelligence of the student with this special need. This misconception can affect the students self esteem and confidence. The problem isn’t that the student doesn’t have an idea or answer it is that they can’t effectively communicate their idea. When teaching it can be hard to understand the student which can cause problems when communicating as well as assessing. It may be difficult to know whether or not a student has mastered a concept if they can’t effectively communicate this. They may also not want to try and communicate because they have low self confidence and feel embarrassed in front of the class.
Resources	American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association http://www.asha.org/ National Association of Parents with Children in Special Education http://napcse.org/exceptionalchildren/speechandlanguageimpairments.php National Stuttering Association http://www.nsastutter.org/ Resources for Improving Literacy, Language, and Communication http://www.speechtx.com/index.htm
Accommodations	Below are ways to accommodate to the needs of students with speech impairment… Repeat or re-voice what the student says in a whole or small group setting, this will help the other students understand and hopefully increase the students self esteem. Work at students pace; allow extra time for the student if needed. Another accommodation would be to allow the student to draw a picture along with their writing to help communicate their ideas better. Give extra wait time when asking for responses by speech impaired students. Work 1-1 with the student to help eliminate any embarrassing moments in front of the whole class, students who are speech impaired may feel more comfortable in a 1 on 1 setting with the teacher. Provide parents with information and strategies to use at home with their child. Offer an abundant amount of social interaction opportunities.
Curricular Modification	A way to modify the curriculum would be to allow the student to express their ideas through a method that best fits their strengths. For example some speech impaired students have difficulties writing, so instead of having a student only produce a written response they could draw a picture as well. In my classroom students give a lot of oral responses, a way to break the speech barrier with my special need student is to elicit action responses. Instead of having one student answer a question verbally I ask a question and have students do an action move such as snapping fingers, touching nose, or tapping head as a response. For example, I would say, tap your head if a map shows you where something is. This eliminates the need for the student to verbally respond and I can assess their knowledge of the topic without needing a verbal response. My mentor teacher and I also model how our special need student can take her comment and make it into a full sentence. She has to try to repeat the full sentence back after it has been correctly modeled.