Speech and Language Impairment

Causes: Some causes of speech and language disorders include hearing loss, neurological disorders,
brain injury, intellectual disabilities, drug abuse, physical impairments such as cleft lip or palate, and
vocal abuse or misuse. Frequently, however, the cause is unknown.

Characteristics: Some characteristics of language disorders include improper use of words and their
meanings, inability to express ideas, inappropriate grammatical patterns, reduced vocabulary and
inability to follow directions.

Learning: Language difficulties can affect the child's ability to produce the sounds for speech, to
understand language or to produce words and sentences. Language delay may be the main difficulty
facing the child, or be part of a broader atypical profile.A child with a speech-language delay is likely to
have difficulty following instructions, especially if the instructions are only given orally and if they
contain multiple words and/or steps. In addition, children who have problems with speech-language
skills may also have difficulty learning how to read and spell.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Cause

The exact cause of ASD is unknown. The most current research demonstrates that there’s no single
cause.

Some of the suspected risk factors for autism include:

having an immediate family member with autism

genetic mutations

fragile X syndrome and other genetic disorders

being born to older parents

low birth weight

metabolic imbalances

exposure to heavy metals and environmental toxins

a history of viral infections

fetal exposure to the medications valproic acid (Depakene) or thalidomide (Thalomid)

Characteristics: Autism differs from person to person in severity and combinations of symptoms. There
is a great range of abilities and characteristics of children with autism spectrum disorder — no two
children appear or behave the same way. Symptoms can range from mild to severe and often change
over time.

Characteristics of autism spectrum disorder fall into two categories.

Social interaction and communication problems: including difficulties in normal back-and-forth

conversation, reduced sharing of interests or emotions, challenges in understanding or responding to
social cues such as eye contact and facial expressions, deficits in developing/maintaining/understanding
relationships (trouble making friends), and others.

Restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests or activities:

hand-flapping and toe-walking, playing with toys in an uncommon way (such as lining up cars or flipping
objects), speaking in a unique way (such as using odd patterns or pitches in speaking or “scripting” from
favorite shows), having significant need for a predictable routine or structure, exhibiting intense
interests in activities that are uncommon for a similarly aged child, experiencing the sensory aspects of
the world in an unusual or extreme way (such as indifference to pain/temperature, excessive
smelling/touching of objects, fascination with lights and movement, being overwhelmed with loud
noises, etc), and others.

Also, while many people with autism have normal intelligence, many others have mild or significant
intellectual delays. Additionally, people with ASD are at greater risk for some medical conditions such as
sleep problems, seizures and mental illnesses.

Learning: Children with autism may be both focused and exceptionally skilled in certain areas such as
math or music. However, a narrow range of interests means it can be difficult to engage them in other
areas of learning. These narrow and intense interests may also manifest in repetitive play or motions.

Visual

Cause: Vision and hearing impaired may be divided into two main groups, based on when the
impairment has occurred: congenitally deafblind, since birth or early childhood and acquired deafblind
those that have become deafblind later on.

The most common cause of vision and hearing impairment is the Usher syndrome. Other triggers can
also be many other syndromes, such as the CHARGE syndrome.
Syndromes often cause impairment at an early age. As an adult, vision and hearing impairment is most
often due to an injury or aging.

Characteristics: