Collecting Speech Disorders Disability Benefits Is A Reality
How Can Disability Insurance Attorneys Dell & Schaefer Assist You?
As disability attorneys, Dell & Schaefer have represented numerous long term disability claimants that have been unable to work as a result of a speech disorder. Disability Attorneys Dell & Schaefer have an expansive understanding of the significant restrictions and limitations that a person suffering with a speech disorder must live with on a daily basis. We have worked closely with top physicians in order to sufficiently satisfy a disability carrier’s threshold of evidence necessary to prove that a client is disabled by suffering a speech disorder.
Not everyone suffering from suffering a speech disorder qualifies for long-term disability benefits, therefore the medical records of each client must be reviewed to determine the level of restrictions. We welcome the opportunity to discuss your long-term disability claim. You can contact us for a free initial consultation.
What is a speech disorder?
A speech disorder is defined as any defect or abnormality that prevents an individual from communicating by means of spoken words. Speech disorders refer to several conditions in which a person has difficulty communicating by mouth.
There are many potential causes of a speech disorder. Physical impairment or injury may be responsible in the development of a speech disorder including disorders of the palate, hearing impairment/loss, vocal cord injury, a right hemisphere brain injury, traumatic brain injury and stroke.
There are also several conditions and diseases which are related to speech disorders such as; Attention deficit disorder (ADD), cerebral palsy, Cri-du-chat syndrome, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, stroke, schizophrenia, oral cancer, laryngeal cancer and throat cancer.
Common speech and language disorders include:
- Aphasia is loss of the ability to understand or express spoken or written language. It commonly occurs following strokes or traumatic brain injuries, or in people with brain tumors or degenerative diseases that affect the language areas of the brain (the left side of the brain). There are many different types of aphasia. In some cases of aphasia, the problem eventually corrects itself, but in others the condition is irreversible.
- In dysarthria, the person has ongoing difficulty expressing certain sounds or words. They have poorly pronounced speech (such as slurring) and the rhythm or speed of speech is changed. Usually, a nerve or brain disorder has made it difficult to control the larynx and vocal cords, which make speech. Dysarthria, which is a difficulty pronouncing words, is sometimes confused with aphasia, which is a difficulty producing language. They have different causes. People with dysarthria may also experience problems swallowing.
- Anything that changes the shape of the vocal cords or the way they work will cause a voice disturbance. Lump-like growths such as nodules, polyps, cysts, papillomas, granulomas, and cancers can be to blame. These changes cause the voice to sound different from the way it normally sounds.
- Dysphonia is another type of speech impairment. Spasmodic dysphonia involves difficulty speaking because of repetitive or continuous spasms (dystonia) of the muscles that control the vocal cords. With this condition, continuous talking is extremely difficult.
How the symptoms of a speech disorder can affect you
Disfluency is a rhythm disorder that is usually characterized by the repetition of a sound, word, or phrase. Stuttering is perhaps the most serious disfluency. Articulation deficiency involves sounds made incorrectly or inappropriately. A voice disorder involves abnormalities in the quality, pitch, and loudness of the sound.
The symptoms of disfluency are the repetition of sounds, words, or phrases after age 4, frustration with attempts to communicate, head jerking and eye blinking while talking and embarrassment with speech.
The symptoms of articulation deficiency include unintelligible speech by age 3, leaves out consonants at the beginning of words by age 3, leaves out consonants at the end of words by age 4, persistent problems with articulation after age 7, leaves out sounds where they should occur, distorts sounds and substitution of an incorrect sound for a correct one.
Voice disorder symptoms include pitch deviations and deviations in the loudness and quality of the voice.
Speech disorders may lead to psychosocial problems associated with ineffective communication. The best treatment for a speech disorder is prevention and early intervention by a speech pathologist. Speech training is an involved and time-consuming endeavor that can have profound results with consistent treatment. The prognosis depends on the cause of the disorder. Usually, speech can be improved with speech therapy. Prognosis improves with early intervention.
Resources
There are many valuable sources of speech disorder information available. You can also access resources over the internet such as:
