Communication disorders have become prevalent in the current world. Almost every person in the world has a relationship, either a family relationship or friendship, with a person suffering from a communication disorder. Communication is an essential part of human life thus making communication disorders a real problem in the world. Communication abilities influence the educational, social, and economical capabilities of a person. Most of the communication disorders affecting people develop in the early stages of life. Medical research indicates that early medical interventions help reduce the severity of communication disorders (Duffy, Watt & Duffy, 2014). For this reason, parents and guardians should always examine their children to determine their communication abilities at a young age. The ability to learn alternative communication mechanisms among children is easier and faster than in adults.
Duffy, Watt, & Duffy present a path analysis to determine the relationship between different causes of communication disorders. In their article, the authors present different impacts that each of the speculated causes of communication disorder has on human life. Communication disorders present themselves in speech, language, and the ability to articulate certain words. Communication disorders can occur because of many reasons. Brain injury is the major cause of language-related communication disorders. According to Duffy et al. (2014), brain injury affects an individual’s ability to comprehend and make sense of language and words. Additionally, brain injury affects one’s ability to interpret sounds, which in turn affects the ability to understand languages and articulate certain words. Brain injury in children is a common occurrence. Some babies develop such complications at birth while others develop brain injuries later in life. In either case, early diagnosis helps reduce the negative impacts of the injury, thus improving the communication abilities of a child. Mental retardation is the second major cause of communication disorders. A person’s cognitive ability greatly determines their abilities to interpret information and articulate words (Duffy, et al., 2014). A mentally retarded person has low cognitive and intellectual abilities, which reduce the ability to interpret words effectively. Physical impairments such as cleft lip and hearing problems affect the speech ability of an individual. However, Speech and communication issues resulting from physical impairments are usually temporary; for this reason, they are easy to handle. Lastly, emotional imbalances can affect one’s ability to comprehend and articulate certain words. Emotional imbalance affects the brain, thus interfering with an individual’s ability to interpret languages and voices.
The analysis presented in the article provides crucial information that can assist medical practitioners and parents to deal with communication complications every day. Understanding impacts that the certain situations have on a person help medical practitioners to come up with effective solutions to communications problems. In most cases, people assume that all individuals suffering from communication disorders are mentally retarded. The perception limits the amount of intervention dedicated to helping people with communication disorders. According to this article, only ten percent of the people suffering from communication disorders are mentally impaired. For this reason, the ministry of health should increase its efforts in dealing with communication issues because most of these situations are curable. Additionally, the information presented in this article helps inform parents on how to handle their children, especially those with communication problems (Duffy, et al., 2014). Emotional stress is a major contributor to communication disorders among young people, For this reason, parents and guardians should handle children with care.
Reference
Duffy, J., Watt, J. & Duffy, R. (2014). Path analysis: a strategy for investigating the multivariate causal relationship in communication disorders. Journal of speech, language and hearing research, 24 (1), 474-490.