Disorder of receptive speech: causes, symptoms, diagnosis

Disorder of receptive speech is one of the forms of specific disruption in the development of speech and language, in which understanding speech with a safe physical hearing is noticeably below the level corresponding to the child's mental development.

Synonym: mixed disorder expressive / impressive speech.

ICD-10 code

F80.2 Disorder of receptive speech.

What causes disorders of receptive speech?

The cause of the disorder is unknown. Patients exhibit multiple signs of cortical insufficiency. The main affected area of the brain is the temporal lobe of the dominant hemisphere.

Symptoms of a disorder of receptive speech

Early signs of frustration are the inability to respond to familiar names in the absence of nonverbal cues. Severe forms of frustration have attracted attention for already two years, when the child is unable to follow simple instructions. Children do not form a phonemic perception, phonemes do not differentiate, the word as a whole is not perceived. The child hears, but does not understand the speech addressed to him. Outwardly they resemble deaf children, but unlike them adequately react to non-verbal auditory stimuli. They show the ability to social interaction. They can enter role-playing games, use sign language in a limited amount. Usually, such a level of a disorder of receptive speech is defined as sensory alalia. With sensory alalia, no connection is formed between the word and the object, the word and the action. The result of this is a delay in mental and intellectual development. In a pure form, sensory alalia is rarely seen.

In this type of disorder, bilateral abnormalities in the EEG are often noted. In this variant, the most common emotional and behavioral disorders (increased level of anxiety, social phobias, hyperactivity and inattention) are most often noted.

Differential diagnosis of disorders of receptive speech

Differentiation from secondary disorders due to deafness is based on audiometric data and the presence of qualitative signs of speech pathology.

Differentiation from acquired aphasia or dysphasia, caused by neurological pathology, is based on the observation of the period of normal speech development to trauma or other exogenous organic effects of the manifestation of the endogenous organic process. In doubtful cases, instrumental methods (EEG, EchoEG, MRI of the brain, CT of the brain) are used to conduct differential diagnosis and to establish an anatomical lesion focus.

Differentiation with common developmental disorders is based on such signs as the lack of language in children with a common developmental disorder; imaginary game, inadequate use of gestures, violations in the non-verbal sphere of intelligence, etc.

Differentiation with children's autism is built on the absence of qualitative disorders of social interaction.

[1], [2]