There are many types of speech disorders which afflict human beings, though males seem to suffer from speech disorders at a much higher ratio than females. Different speech disorders can include aphasia, articulation disorders, mutism, stuttering, velopharyngeal insufficiency, voice disorders and others. All of these speech disorders can interfere with reading achievement if left untreated. Speech disorders interfere with reading achievement for a variety of reasons. The first is that some speech disorders directly interfere with the reading process from limited comprehension to inability to form certain sounds. Second, speech disorders can also interfere with reading achievement because the individual who suffers from a speech disorder often experiences low self-esteem because of anxiety, feelings of inadequacy, or inappropriate behavior from listeners when their speech is unintelligible or inferior to peers thus drawing unwelcome attention to the speaker. In general, speech disorders can be grouped into the following three categories:
Dysfluency (repetition, prolongation, hesitation, block, incomplete phrases)
Voice (problems with pitch, intensity, quality, intonation, e.g., nasal, whisper)
Articulation (lips, sound substitution, distortion, or omission).
The causes of speech disorders may or may not be physical. For example, some individuals may have a speech disorder as the result of an illness such as cerebral palsy, whereas others may have a speech disorder as the result of cultural background or some emotional trauma. Regardless of the type of speech disorder, it is common that children exhibiting them see a speech-language pathologists in order to determine which kind of instructional strategy might best benefit the individual afflicted. Speech disorders are often compounded or even further exacerbated by reading and/or hearing disorders. The relationship works in reverse also, “students who have a signi...