A speech disorder refers to a child's difficulty with formulating sounds, fluency of speech (also known stuttering) and/or problems with some aspect of voice production.

A language disorder is an impairment in the child's ability to understand and/or use words in context which can be verbal or nonverbal.

 

In order for a child to receive speech or language services in the state of Minnesota, he needs to meet specific criteria in one or more of the following categories:

    1)  Voice Disorder

            *Characterized by difficulties in pitch, volume or quality of the voice.

  *The child may demonstrate an inappropriately high or low pitch, speak too loudly or too softly, have a very rough or harsh vocal quality, have excessive hyper or hyponasality or may have difficulties sustaining his voice.

 

       2)  Fluency Disorder

            *Characterized by an interruption in the flow or rhythm of speech.

  *Seconday characteristics can include body or facial tension, blinking, snapping, leg-slapping, nodding, etc.

  *Usually referred to as stuttering.

  *The child may demonstrate sound, word or phrase repetitions, word prolongations, inappropriate pauses and/or use fillers such as "like", "um", "you know".

       3) Articulation Disorder

  *Characterized by problems with sound formation making it difficult for the listener to understand his speech.

  *The child may omit sounds such as saying "tuck" for "truck" or "poon" for "spoon".  The child may substitute one sound for another such as "dat" for "cat" or "bish" for "fish".  The child could also display certain sound distortions.

       4) Language Disorder

  *Some characteristics may include improper use of words and their meanings, inability to express ideas, inappropriate grammatical patterns, lack of specificity, weak or slow processing, reduced vocabulary and inability to follow directions.