During the past 17 years (1971 to 1987), 7, 419 children with communicative disorders due to various causes visited our speech and hearing clinic for children at Teikyo University Hospital. These communicative disorders were classified into the following six groups according to the anatomical sites of pathology related to speech or language disorders.
1) Retarded development of speech and language due to peripheral hearing loss or central auditory disorders, such as auditory agnosia or pure word deafness.
2) Developmental and acquired language disorders, including mental retardation, infantile autism and aphasia.
3) Developmental motor speech disorders, including specific developmental speech disorder syndrome, developmental apraxia of speech, so-called functional articulation disorders, dysarthria, etc.
4) Speech disorders due to deffects of the peripheral speech organs.
5) Voice disorders.
6) Speech and language disorders caused by psychological or environmental problems.
Although many factors influence the development of language and speech, from a therapeutic view point, it is important to pay attention to psychological and environmental factors, including intelligence, mental energy, cognitive abilities, emotional stability, parent-and-child relationship, environment surroundings, etc.
My clinical and practical experience indicates that those who work for communicatively handicapped children must establish their own methodologies for understanding each child as an individual developing under the influences of many biological as well as psychological and environmental factors.
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