Alalia: symptoms, causes and treatment

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

People who suffer from it tend to develop good capacities to express their ideas in writing, since it is usually their only source of communication.

• Related article: "The 14 types of language disorders"

Alalia: what is it?

Etymologically the word "Alaila" comes from the Greek, and means "muteness", but it is important to bear in mind that the fact that having alalia does not imply other alterations at the intellectual level or of other senses such as hearing. That is why people who suffer from it tend to have good written communication skills.

Here we will see what alalia consists of, the characteristics of this alteration, 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 allelics and are usually very young children.

The first sign that a person suffers from alalia is if that child does not follow a trend in terms of her development for her age group.

Around 12 months of age, the first words are usually started. If shortly after reaching 12 months of age the child does not speak, but nevertheless does not wave goodbye or point to objects or people, in principle there is no reason to worry.

Between 15 and 18 months, there is a critical point of suffering a delay in speech if they cannot say neither the word “mom” nor the word “dad”, if they do not interact when greeted or said goodbye with a “hello” or “goodbye”, or if they use numerous gestures during the speaks. A factor of normality of language development to take into account would be have 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 2 and 4 years of age. age, as well as the inability to follow simple instructions and commands, as well as when they can correctly make connections between the words. Finally, another sign of speech delay would be the inability to create simple sentences of 2 or 3 words, in the range of 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. Allelic individuals present a picture similar to that of mental retardation. Nevertheless, allelic patients relate well, orient themselves easily, and understand mimicry and gestures. It must be taken into account that any language pathology can be present in people with normal intelligence but in people with special educational needs.

Causes

The delay, impairment, even loss of language can be caused by a physical tear in the mouth area while it is still forming, or just after birth. In consecuense, the child may be slow in shaping the mouth and tongue to form words.

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

• Traumas in the prenatal period (before birth)
• Perinatal trauma (immediately before or after birth)
• Poisonings
• Pathological lengthening of labor time.
• Difficult deliveries with mechanical assistance
• Hearing loss
• Viral and infectious diseases
• Brain trauma in the postnatal period (after birth).

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

• You may be interested: "Areas of the brain specialized in language: their location and functions"

Types of alalia

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

1. Motor alalia

The motor alalia is one that characterized by involvement of the frontal parietal area, thus breaking its functions. This leads to a problem of coordination and balance.

This leads to difficulties understanding words. So finally allelic people substitute words for similarity of sounds, as they find it difficult to repeat complex words. If left untreated, this can lead to stuttering.

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

• You may be interested: "Stuttering (dysphemia): symptoms, types, causes and treatment"

2. Sensory Alalia

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

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

In summary, those with 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., 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 (TMP), which focuses on correcting facial muscle imbalance. These help are usually given by speech therapists.

Other suitable routines would be to read to children on a regular basis, ask questions in simple and clear language, as well as suggest the use of textures specific in foods to exercise and strengthen the jaw muscles, while developing new jaw movements during the chewing.

Another appropriate guideline is to read to patients affected by alalia, and also ask questions in plain 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 jaw movements during the chewing. Finally, another less common technique is to use music as speech therapy to promote and facilitate speech and language development.

Finally, it should be noted that therapy should be taking into account the nucleus and the family contextThus, there must be communication and joint work with the patient's closest environment, and thus positively favor the growth of oral language and vocabulary. In any case, the timely intervention of 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. Panamericana Medical Publishing House.
• Calavia-Traín, J. (2014). State of the art: speech disorders in the first years of age. JOIN.
• Chernousova, L. (2008). The conception of severe communication disorders. LUZ, Educate from science, 7 (1).