User:Barkerke/Language disorder

Childhood language disorders
During childhood the most common type of disruption in communication is a language disorder. In most cases, language development is predictable and referrals for evaluation may be needed in cases where a child's language development is atypical. Language disorders among children are present when a child is experiencing substantial difficultly regarding their language development. Among young children, language disorders have been associated with higher rates of social difficulties and anxiety.

Specific language impairment
Specific language impairment (SLI) is a language disorder among children that has no known cause and cannot be attributed to any physical or mental handicap, environmental factors such as deprivation, hearing loss, or any other underlying etiology. Specific language impairment is characterized by abnormal development of language that includes a delay in the onset of language, simplification of grammatical structures and difficulty with grammatical morphology, limited vocabulary, and problems understanding complex language. Children with SLI tend to begin speaking at a later age and have a more limited vocabulary than their peers. Among the language disorders that are present during childhood, SLI is one of the most prevalent, affecting roughly 7% of children. While children with specific language impairment have difficulty with language production, they are noted to have normal levels of intelligence.

Autism spectrum disorder
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a term used to define a group of developmental disorders that are characterized by disruption in communication and social abilities, limited eye contact, exhibiting repetitive behaviors, and having limited interests. Due to the fact that autism impacts communication and social interactions, language is affected in most instances. Children with autism who experience severe impairment of social and linguistic skills often do not use language at all.

Acquired neurogenic language disorders
Language disorders that are neurogenic affect the nervous system and result in disruption in language production. The type of language dysfunction that occurs is dependent upon the site, extent, and cause of the brain damage.

Aphasia
Aphasia is a language disorder that is caused by damage to the tissue in the language center in the brain. The type of incident that most often causes Aphasia is stroke but can also occur due to traumatic brain injury, infection, tumors, and degenerative brain disorders. Aphasia is a disorder that is acquired, therefore it occurs in individuals that have already developed language. Aphasia does not affect a person's intellect or speech but Instead affects the formulation of language. All areas of language are affected by aphasia including expressive and receptive language abilities. Symptoms of aphasia vary widely but generally are defined by language deficits that affect fluency, the ability to talk, reading, writing, and comprehension. There are many types of aphasia that vary in symptoms depending upon where in the language center of the brain the damage occurred. The aphasias can be categorized as different aphasic syndromes depending upon the location of lesion and the symptoms that differentiate the aphasias from one another. Global aphasia is a type of aphasia that occurs in people where a large portion of the language center of the brain has been damaged and results in deficits in all modalities of language. Broca's aphasia, also referred to as expressive aphasia, is an aphasic syndrome in which there is damage in left hemisphere, specifically in the Broca's area, of the brain. Broca's aphasia may affect an individual's ability to produce speech while comprehension remains intact.

Traumatic brain injury
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is caused by neurological damage due to an open or closed head injury. The most frequent causes of head injury include motor vehicle accidents, assault, gun related incidents, and falls, TBI is categorized as either mild, moderate or severe and can affect cognitive, psychosocial, and linguistic skills. Language skills that may be affected include comprehension, motor output, word finding, and difficulties with reading.

Classification
In order to help distinguish between language disorders, they are often categorized as either primary disorders of language, secondary disorders of langue, acquired or developmental. A primary language disorder is one that cannot be attributed to an underlying disorder and is solely responsible for the language disturbance while a secondary language disorder is the result of another disorder. Language disorders can also be categorized as developmental or acquired. A developmental language disorder is present at birth while an acquired language disorder occurs at some point after birth. Acquired language disorders can often be attributed to injuries within the brain due to occurrences such as stroke or Traumatic brain injury.