Have you ever heard of alalia? It is a language disorder that affects speech. Specifically, alaila involves the partial or total inability to communicate through oral expression.

People who suffer from it often develop good skills in expressing their ideas in writing, as this is often their only source of communication.

Alalia: what is it?

Etymologically the word “Alaila” comes from the Greek, and means “dumbness”, but it is important to note that the fact that suffering from alalia does not imply other alterations at the intellectual level or of other senses such as hearing . This is why people who suffer from it usually have good written communication skills.

Here we will see what alalia is, the characteristics of this disorder, the causes that can produce it, and finally the treatments for alalia.

Symptoms

There are different parameters that can be indicative that a person suffers or may suffer from alalia.

People with alalia are called alalics and are usually children of low age. The first sign that a person suffers from alalics is if that child does not follow a developmental trend because of his or her age group .

Around 12 months of age, the first words are usually said. If shortly after the child turns 12 months of age he or she does not speak, but does not gesture goodbye or point to objects or people, in principle there is nothing to worry about.

Between 15 and 18 months, there is a critical point of speech delay if they cannot say the word “mom” or “dad,” if they do not interact when greeted or dismissed with a “hello” or “goodbye,” or if they use numerous gestures during speech. A normal factor in language development to be taken into account would be having a vocabulary of between 2 and 5 words at 12 months and about 15 words at 18 months .

On the other hand, another sign of speech delay is the inability to produce words and phrases spontaneously between the ages of 2 and 4, as well as the inability to follow simple instructions and commands, and when they can correctly make connections between words. Finally, another sign of speech delay would be the inability to create simple 2- or 3-word phrases within those ages.

It is important to bear in mind that there are characteristics that also prevail in other pathologies and therefore it is important not to err in the diagnosis. Individuals with allergies present a similar picture to that of mental retardation. However, patients with allergies relate well, are easily oriented and understand mimicry and gestures . It should be taken into account that any language pathology may be present in people with normal intelligence but in people with special educational needs.

Causes

Delay, deterioration, even loss of language can be caused by a physical break in the mouth area while it is still forming, or just after birth. Consequently, the child may be slow to shape the mouth and tongue to form words .

However, there are several causes, including non-physical ones, that can cause alalia:

  • Trauma in the prenatal (unborn) period
  • Perinatal trauma (immediately before or after birth)
  • Intoxications
  • Pathological lengthening of labor time.
  • Difficult births with mechanical assistance
  • Hearing loss
  • Viral and infectious diseases
  • Brain trauma in the post-natal period (after birth).

Each of these causes together or separately can lead to the appearance of a lesion in the central areas of language , which would lead to the appearance of alalia.

Types of alalia

There are two types of alalia. Depending on its origin, it is classified into the following:

1. Alalia motor

The motor alalia is that which is characterized by an affectation of the frontal parietal zone , thus breaking its functions. This leads to problems of coordination and balance.

This leads to difficulties in understanding words. So eventually people with disabilities replace words with similarity of sounds, as they find it difficult to repeat complex words. If left untreated, this can lead to stuttering .

In the mildest cases of motor alalia, communication through short sentences is common. In the more severe forms, there is usually only onomatopoeia in oral communication, accompanied by facial expressions and gestures.

2. Sensory Alalia

Sensory alalia is somewhat more complex and more serious. Patients who suffer from it do not perceive or understand speech well, so eventually this triggers the inability to speak .

In these cases a specific area of the cerebral cortex is affected, and at this point patients do not speak because the words are incomprehensible to them.

In summary, those affected by sensory alalia are unable to associate words with objects, and generally only communicate with facial expressions and gestures. In many cases, these patients are misdiagnosed as deaf people , so it is essential to have an unequivocal diagnosis.

Treatment

The treatment and therapies needed depend on the degree of alalia, the cause and the severity. In principle, speech therapy is the most effective and common form of intervention .

On the other hand, there are more specific therapies aimed at children suffering from alalia due to physical malformations. One of these therapies is called myofunctional therapy (MFT), which focuses on the correction of facial muscle imbalance. This help is usually given by speech therapists.

Other appropriate routines would be to read to children regularly, ask questions in simple and clear language, and suggest the use of specific textures in foods to exercise and strengthen jaw muscles, while developing new jaw movements during chewing.

Another suitable guideline is to read to patients affected by alalia , and also to ask questions in simple and clear language. In addition, it is important to suggest the use and introduction of different textures of food to exercise and strengthen the jaw muscles, while developing new movements of the jaw during chewing.
Finally, another less common technique is to use music as a speech therapy to promote and facilitate the development of speech and language.

Finally, it should be taken into account that the therapy should be taking into account the nucleus and the family context , so there should be a communication and a joint work with the closest environment of the patient, and thus favor positively in the growth of oral language and vocabulary. In any case, timely intervention by the speech therapist will increase the success rate and improvement of the patient.

Bibliographic references:

  • American Psychiatric Association (2016). DSM-5. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Pan-American Medical Publishing House.
  • Calavia-Traín, J. (2014). State of the art: speech disorders in the early years. UNIR.
  • Chernousova, L. (2008). Conception on severe communication disorders. LIGHT, Educating from science, 7(1).