Speech and language disorders (Absolute agraphia; agnosia; agnosia of body schema; agnosia of other senses; agrammatism; agraphia; acalculia; acoustic agnosia; acoustic amnesia; alexia; amimia; amusia; anomie; Anton-Babinski syndrome; apraxia; asymbolia; Auditory Amnesia; Autotopagnosia; Bianchi syndrome; Dysgrammatism; Dyscalculia; Dyslexia; Dysnomia; Echolalia; Developmental alexia; Developmental dyslexia; Developmental reading disorder; Developmental dyslexia; Developmental reading disorder; Developmental spelling disorder; Ideokinetic apraxia; Ideomotor apraxia; Classical apraxia; Reading delay; Reading difficulty; Reading disorder; Motor apraxia; Optical agnosia; Palilalia; Perseveration; Pragmatagnosia; Spelling disorder with reading disorder; Soul blindness; Soul deafness; Secondary strephosymbolia due to organic damage; Speech loss; Stereoagnosia; Strephosymbolia; Symbolic dysfunction a. n.k.; Tactile agnosia; Tonic perseveration; Circumscribed reading disorder; Circumscribed spelling disorder; Verbal agnosia; Verbal apraxia; Visual agnosia; speech and language disorder) denote disorders of so-called higher brain functions. These are functions such as reading, writing, recognition, each of which can be assigned to specific cortical areas of the brain.
Speech and language disorders include:
- Dyslexia/lexia (ICD-10 R48.0, F81.0) – impaired reading ability/ability to read.
- Agnosia (ICD-10 R48.1) – recognition disorder despite intact perception; differentiable into acoustic- “soul deafness”, optical- “soul blindness”, pragmatic-, tactile-, visual agnosia; occurs rarely
- Apraxia (ICD-10 R48.2) – learned actions/movements cannot be performed despite preserved perceptual and motor abilities
- Agraphia (ICD-10 R48.8) – inability to write despite preserved motor skills as well as preserved intellect
- Acalculia* (ICD-10 R48.8) – inability to calculate despite preserved intellect.
- Other and unspecified Speech and language disorders (ICD-10 R48.8).
* 20-60% of affected individuals show associated learning problems such as dyslexia or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Speech and language disorders occur after brain lesions or are an expression of childhood developmental disorders.
Speech and language disorders can be a symptom of many diseases (see under “Differential diagnoses”).
The prevalence (disease frequency) for dyslexia is about 5-17%.
Course and prognosis: The course and prognosis of a speech and language disorder depend on the type and cause of the disorder. Therapy for Speech and language disorders is interdisciplinary.
