About Golisano Children's Hospital
Our Services and Programs
Our Team
Keeping Your Child Healthy
Our Specialized Centers
Research
 Home
Education
Community Outreach
 Home
For Referring Physicians
 Home
Ways to Give
 Home

 

More Information
Golisano Children's Hospital News

 
Golisano Children's Hospital at Strong  

 

Patient and Family Services

Pediatric Speech Pathology

Cognitive Communication Disorders

What is a Cognitive Communication Disorder?
Symptoms of Cognitive Communication Disorders
Types of Cognitive Communication Disorders
Causes of Cognitive Communication Disorders
Diagnosing Cognitive Communication Disorders
Treating Cognitive Communication Disorders

What is a Cognitive Communication Disorder?


A cognitive communication disorder is a broad term that’s used to describe a wide range of specific communication problems that can result from damage to regions of the brain that control your ability to think (cognition). Damage that can impair your ability to transform thoughts into meaningful speech, writing, or gestures.

back to top

Symptoms of Cognitive Communication Disorders


Symptoms of cognitive communication disorders vary widely depending on the type and cause of the disorder. They can range from minor to severe problem.

back to top

Types of Cognitive Communication Disorders


Speech and voice disorders may include:

  • Fluency disorder: An interruption in the flow of speech that’s characterized by an unusual rate or rhythm of speech, hesitations, repetition of sounds or words, or prolongations of nouns, syllables, words, or phrases. Symptoms may be accompanied by excessive tension, struggle behavior, and secondary mannerisms.
  • Articulation disorder. Difficulties with the way sounds are formed and assembled, often characterized by omitting, adding, substituting, or distorting sounds.
  • Voice disorder. Characterized vocal quality, pitch, loudness, resonance, or duration which is inappropriate for an individual's age or gender, or both

Language disorders may include:

  • Aphasia. Loss of speech and language abilities as a result of a stroke or some other form of damage to the brain.
  • Delayed language - Slowness in the development of the language skills necessary for conveying and understanding thoughts and ideas.

back to top


Causes of Cognitive Communication Disorders


Causes of cognitive communication problems may include:

  • Strokes
  • Traumatic brain injury
  • Tumors
  • Disease
  • Neurological disorders
  • Birth defects
  • Certain medications
  • Alcohol and drug abuse

back to top


Diagnosing Cognitive Communication Disorders


Cognitive communication disorders are diagnosed by doctors, neurologists, speech-language pathologists, and other health professionals. While different problems may require special diagnostic procedures, most diagnoses include any or all of the following:

  • Complete physical exam
  • Medical history
  • Detailed assessment and history of symptoms
  • Tests to measure speech and language skills
  • Diagnostic imaging (MRI and CT scans)

back to top

Treating Cognitive Communication Disorders


A health professional’s choice of therapy is will be based on the type and severity of the disorder. If there is an underlying cause (a brain infection, for example), it often will be treated first. Various types of group or one-on-one speech and language therapy will follow.

back to top