Speech and language dysfunctions usually occur in children: a child's speech and language may not develop at the same pace as their other skills. For some children, language difficulties lead to learning difficulties later in life. The Phoniatrics Outpatient Clinic also treats fluency disorders such as stuttering.
Voice and language dysfunctions manifest themselves in producing speech or comprehending speech or both. Children may use incorrect or mutated words, have difficulty inflecting words, or have difficulty finding words when they speak. They may have difficulty in understanding questions and complicated instructions.
Language dysfunctions can be reliably diagnosed in children aged about 4 and above. Children and their families can receive support as needed from an AAC instructor, an early childhood education special needs teacher, a rehabilitation coach, and a social worker.
If a child is 3 years old and (1) cannot yet express himself/herself verbally, or (2) has considerable difficulty understanding language, or (3) communications problems impede the child from participating in everyday interaction situations and from learning new things, and (4) the child requires means of communication supporting and replacing speech in almost all situations; then the child has a severe language dysfunction.
Mild language dysfunctions are dealt with in basic health care, while severe ones require specialist medical care.
