Spotlight on Speech Disorders: Types, Symptoms, Treatment, & More

Speech impairments, impediments, or disorders are all terms that describe problems with the way we produce sounds. They can be the result of your genetic makeup, a brain injury like a stroke, learnt behaviors, or the complex interplay of all three.

Speech disorders are no small issue, with about 5% of children in the US experiencing a speech disorder by the first grade. On top of that, around 3 million adults in the US experience stuttering, while around 1 million are affected by aphasia (a group of language disorders caused by brain trauma).

Types of Speech Disorders

Because there are so many distinct speech disorders, it's important to understand the commonalities as well as the differences, especially when it comes to diagnosing and treating a whole host of issues:

1. Fluency Disorders

This category refers to anything that affects the continuity, smoothness, rate, and effort of speaking. Stuttering is a common example that affects many of us and can have a poor impact on well-being. Research has linked stuttering with social anxiety and worsened self-image due to the inability to clearly communicate and real or perceived judgment from others about one's stuttering.

Cluttering is another fluency issue that is often overshadowed by stuttering. Cluttering refers to rapid, irregular, and often disorganized speech patterns. This could be speaking too fast for others to comprehend, collapsing words into one another, and drastically varying the rhythm of speech.

There is no definitive answer as to what causes cluttering, but it is common in individuals with Attention disorders, auditory processing disorders, autism spectrum disorder, and tourettes.

2. Speech Sound Disorders

Speech sound disorders are separated into two main categories: articulation and phonological. Articulation disorders cause problems when making specific sounds, like lisping or substituting “w” for “r,” due to improper tongue or lip placement.

Phonological disorders involve patterns of sound errors, like omitting final consonants, reflecting difficulty with language sound rules. Both, common in children, affect clarity but are treatable through speech therapy targeting sound practice or rule-based learning.

3. Motor Speech Disorders

These disorders, like apraxia and dysarthria, disrupt speech production. Apraxia is a neurological motor planning disorder common in young people that impairs the tongue and throat movements necessary to produce accurate speech.

Dysarthria, on the other hand, is caused by muscle weakness from conditions like Parkinson’s, leading to slurred or breathy speech. Both impair communication but differ in origin—aphraxia from planning issues, dysarthria from physical limitations.

4. Orofacial Myofunctional Disorders (OMDs)

OMDs describe issues with the oral and facial muscles, affecting functions like swallowing, tongue positioning, or breathing. Common signs include mouth breathing, tongue thrusting, or improper habits like thumb-sucking.

OMDs may stem from physical causes such as blocked nasal passages from large tonsils or allergies, forcing mouth breathing, or structural issues causing incorrect tongue or lip positioning. Habits and developmental factors also contribute.

Specialists like speech-language pathologists with the requisite online speech pathology masters qualification, dentists, or ENT doctors, diagnose and treat OMDs through targeted therapies like myofunctional exercises.

5. Voice Disorders

Anyone who has ever woken up after a fever-ridden night with a terribly sore throat and a voicebox that only produces horse whispers can relate to these disorders. Voice disorders describe a change in how your voice sounds, commonly caused by Laryngitis (inflammation of the larynx).

Rarer disorders like spasmodic dysphonia cause involuntary spasms in the muscles of the larynx, causing distorted speech–this is what caused Robert Kennedy Jr.'s distinct speech.

6. Aphasia

This term is used to categorize disorders that impair speech due to brain damage. Expressive aphasia, also known as Broca’s aphasia, is due to the region of the brain affected (Broca's area), which affects the production of speech. People who suffer from damage to this area are usually able to understand what others are saying, but can only respond in short, broken sentences, omitting joining words.

Receptive or Wernicke’s aphasia, which, as you may have guessed, is caused by damage to Wernicke's area, causes problems with speech comprehension. Receptive aphasics speak in entirely normal patterns with inflection and punctuation but use words that make no sense together to produce ‘nonsense.’

Both disorders are common after lesions to either language processing area caused by strokes.

Advancing Diagnosis

As you can see, speech disorders are incredibly broad; some have many similarities while others are entirely different from one another. For instance, aphasia can be diagnosed with brain scans and neurological assessments, while OMDs require close evaluations of the facial structure and function.

Recent advancements in speech disorder diagnostics have revolutionized identification and treatment planning. High-resolution CT and MRI scans now detect structural abnormalities, such as airway obstructions or neurological damage, that may contribute to disorders like dysarthria or apraxia.

Alongside high-tech scans, speech-language pathologists have developed a multitude of specialised assessments, like the Denver Articulation Screening Exam, designed specifically for children to evaluate sound production and identify articulation or phonological disorders. These comprehensive, client-centered tools, combined with standardized tests like the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation, ensure precise diagnosis across ages, enabling targeted interventions to improve communication outcomes.

Treating Speech Disorders

Speech disorder treatments are highly individualized, but there are common approaches that are often adapted to specific conditions.

For fluency disorders like stuttering, speech therapy often focuses on pacing and controlled breathing techniques. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) can also help by addressing anxiety and building self-confidence. Cluttering treatment emphasizes self-monitoring and structured speech exercises to improve clarity.

Speech sound disorders, such as lisps or sound substitutions, are typically treated with articulation therapy, while phonological therapy targets underlying sound pattern rules. Motor speech disorders require different strategies: apraxia is managed with repetitive motor planning exercises, and dysarthria with muscle-strengthening techniques to improve articulation.

Orofacial myofunctional disorders are treated through myofunctional therapy, which works to retrain tongue and lip positioning and eliminate harmful oral habits. Voice disorders—like spasmodic dysphonia—may involve vocal training or, in some cases, Botox injections to relax affected muscles.

For people with aphasia, treatment depends greatly on the type and severity. Expressive aphasia may be addressed with constraint-induced language therapy, while receptive aphasia often involves comprehension-based exercises to rebuild understanding where possible.

Living With Speech Disorders

The severity and impact on functioning differ greatly from case to case, but across the board, there is great hope in treatment. Specialists are getting better training, modern medicine is ever improving, and technology is growing exponentially. So rest assured, speech disorders are manageable and often treatable with the right care and compassion.

Please note this article should not serve as medical advice; if you suspect you or someone you care about may have a speech disorder, contact one of the many health helplines, your GP, or your family doctor.