A communication disorder is any disorder that affects an individual’s ability to understand, detect, or apply language and speech to engage in conversations effectively with others. The delays and disorders can range from simple sound substitution to the inability to understand or use one’s native language. The communication disorders include language disorder, speech sound disorder, social (pragmatic) communication disorder, and childhood-onset fluency disorder (stuttering). The first three disorders are marked by deficits in the development and use of language, speech, and social communication, respectively. A childhood-onset fluency disorder is characterized by disturbances of the normal fluency and motor production of speech, including repetitive sounds or syllables, prolongation of consonants or vowel sounds, broken words, blocking, or words produced with an excess of physical tension.
