The 14 types of language disorders

These disorders affect the production, comprehension or repetition of language, whether spoken or not.

Language is one of the most important capabilities of human beings, to the point that in ancient times it was considered one of the main factors that identified us as human beings.

Communicating, expressing what we think and feel, and the various uses that can be given to such communication, is something partly innate, but that must be trained throughout our lives. But sometimes different problems can appear that make that this acquisition is not correct or it is lost for some reason. Thus, we can identify different types of language disorders. In this article we are going to see some of the main ones.

Language disorders

Language disorders are understood as any difficulty or absence of difficulty or absence in the comprehension, expression or repetition of language in its different in its different aspects that generate problems in the adaptation of the subject to the environment and/or significant discomfort. These problems may arise during the period in which the skill is acquired and strengthened, or as a loss of the already acquired skill.

Although we generally identify language with speech, and indeed speech is an important part of language, it should be kept in mind that the latter also involves paraverbal components, such as the paraverbal paraverbal components such as tone, appropriateness to the context or fluency, and nonverbal and nonverbal components such as gestures and mimicry.

Based on what has been said, we can see that there are multiple problems that can arise in any of these areas, and there are different types of language disorders.

Main types of language disorders

The following is a brief review of some of the most common and well-known language disorders. In this review we include both oral and written language disorders and both comprehension and production disorders..

However, although they affect communication, those disorders that are not limited to this area, such as selective mutism (which is a problem of anxiety and not of language, which is perfectly preserved), are not properly considered language disorders. Other disorders such as autism are not included within language disorders either, although in this case they do have language difficulties (some of which are included in the following disorders).

1. Language disorder

Formerly known as Specific Language Disorder or SLD, the language disorder is characterized by the presence of problems in the comprehension and/or expression of language in subjects with typical intellectual abilities in subjects of the same age, so that such problems would not be the consequence of an intellectual disability.

Grammatical structure and lexical structure are affected.The speech is generally less prolix and more limited than usual.

2. Functional dyslalia or phonological disorder

The phonological disorder, formerly known as dyslalia, is an oral language a problem of the oral language in which difficulties in the articulation are producedmaking language difficult to understand and limiting social participation. It can not emit certain sounds correctly, and often makes substitutions, transformations and omissions of these. The phonological disorder cannot be due to organic causes, which equates it to the former functional dyslalia.

3. Dysarthria

Dysarthria is considered to be that difficulty in the articulation of language produced by a cerebral alteration or located in the nerve fibers. produced by a cerebral alteration or located in the nervous fibers that regulate the articulation and production that regulate the articulation and production of language. It is considered a type of organic dyslalia.

4. Dysglossia

Dysglossia is an organic dyslalia produced by morphological alterations that prevent or hinder the normal use of language and correct pronunciation. An example is found in people with cleft lip or facial malformations. Also is also considered a type of organic dyslalia..

5. Disorder of fluency or dysphemia

Also known as stuttering is a relatively common problem in childhood, although in some cases it becomes chronic. The main problem is found in the difficulties in the fluency with which speech is produced, which is especially accentuated in the presence of an audience.

In his speech, the subject different blocks that interrupt the usual rhythm of speech, be it an abrupt one at the beginning of the wordThe speech is often blocked, either abruptly at the beginning of a word, several small spasms throughout a word or phrase, or a mixture of both. They usually generate great anxiety and sometimes avoidance.

6. Social communication disorder

Also called pragmatic communication disorder, it is based on the existence of difficulties when using language in a context-appropriate manner. There are no problems in comprehension or emission, but there are problems in using the right language at the right time.

It is common that the subject does not understand why in certain contexts the use of one language or another is more or less appropriate, and that there are difficulties in understanding metaphors and analogies. difficulties in understanding metaphors and analogiesIn the same way, language is usually literal, looking for second meanings or finding different ways of expressing the same idea. Likewise, it does not only occur with oral language, but also with gestural language.

This symptomatology is common in subjects with autism and Asperger's disease..

7. Aphasia and dysphasia

Aphasias are all those disorders in which there is a loss or difficulty in producing, understanding or repeating language due to the existence of a brain lesion, this ability being already acquired previously and the deficits occurring only later.

Its infantile equivalent is dysphasia, in which such problems occur in the face of a skill that has not yet been consolidated and often cannot be fully developed due to the existence of a brain lesion. cannot be fully developed due to the brain injury.. In the latter case it is sometimes difficult to differentiate from other problems, since there is no fixed baseline with respect to language ability: the child has not yet learned or has not yet learned to communicate.

Within this group of disorders there are many variants, depending on the injured area and the effect it has on communication and language.

8. Dyslexia and alexia

One of the best known language disorders, but in this case of written language. Dyslexia is the difficulty for reading and writing in which the subject has problems to understand what he/she reads or to perform the action of reading.. Letters are mixed up and substitutions, omissions and translations are made, reading is slowed down and generally there are difficulties in understanding what is read.

Dyslexia can be superficial (in which there are problems when reading words globally), phonological (in which the person has difficulty reading by associating the pagraph with its equivalent in the form of phoneme, so that only the form of the word is read) or deep (a mixture of the two previous ones, which appears together with semantic problems).

Alexia is the total incapacity for this ability due to a brain lesion.

9. Hyperlexia

This problem is characterized by a great ability for fast reading, but usually with little comprehension and retention of the material read. and retention of the material read.

10. Dysgraphia and agraphia

Dysgraphia is understood as the difficulty to produce written language, with problems in encoding and generating letters, words or phrases. There are problems in the ability to organize the writing space, copying difficulties, motor problems at the level of using a pencil and other similar skills, problems in translating thoughts and messages into written language, spelling in writing, use of different fonts and spellingspelling, spelling in writing, using different typographies and spelling among others. It would be the equivalent of dyslexia but at the production level.

As for agraphia, it refers to the inability for these skills derived from a brain injury, in adults.

11. Dysorthographia

A problem in which the main deficit occurs when writing correctly the content of the message we want to produce. Sometimes also referred to as dyslexic dysgraphiaSometimes also called dyslexic dysgraphia, errors occur in writing that affect the correct layout of the spelling according to orthographic rules.

12. Glossolalia

Use of an invented language by the subject, being incomprehensible to listenersin which new terms are generated at the same time as there is agrammatism.

13. Tachyphemia

Speech disorder in which the subject speaks excessively fast, to the point that there is a leakage of words and continuous leakage of words and continuous errors derived from the great speed at which one speaks.

14. Mimicry disorders

Although they are not generally considered as language disorders, it is true that at the level of non-verbal language, mimicry can be a fundamental element of communication.. Dysmimia is the lack of cohesion between what is expressed and what is thought or felt. Hypomimia is the presence of a reduced number of movements and amimia is the absence of expression through movement. On the contrary hypermimias are exaggerated expressions of movements.

Bibliographical references:

• American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Fifth edition. DSM-V. Masson, Barcelona.
• Belloch, Sandín and Ramos (2008). Manual de Psicopatología. Madrid. McGraw-Hill. (vol. 1 and 2) Revised edition.
• Santos, J.L. (2012). Psicopatología. Manual CEDE de Preparación PIR, 01. CEDE: Madrid.