Communication Disorders in Society: A Minority in Need of Understanding


How would you feel if…

You are walking down the street talking to a friend. Some people stop when they see you, look uncomfortable and either cross the street or turn into a store front as you approach.

You meet a person who appears friendly. But after you have said one sentence, the person looks embarrassed and starts talking to you as if you are a child.

You go into a restaurant and ask for a table. The person seating you looks uncertain and then quickly ushers you to a table well away from the main eating area.

You are talking to a salesperson and having difficulty explaining what you want. The salesperson frowns and says, "Just spit it out. I don't have all day."

You are at a neighborhood gathering and start a conversation. The person you are talking with turns and walks away while you are in the middle of a sentence.

* * * * * * *

These and similar situations happen to people with communication differences every day. Why are they treated this way?

After 30+ years of working with individuals with communication disorders, and hearing the same stories over and over, I asked myself this question. Given the sensitivity of society to diversity in terms of race, religion and gender, why would people not respond with greater empathy to individuals whose communication skills were “different”?

I decided the answer was that people didn’t know any better. While the importance of treating people who differ in race, religion and gender are ingrained in our education and social systems, nowhere do we make people aware of the challenges faced by an individual with a communication disorder.

The next question I asked was “who should be responsible for educating the public?” The answer to that question was “the people who are most knowledgeable about communication disorders.” The persons most knowledgeable are those in the professions that work with individuals with communication disorders: speech pathology and audiology. The people in these professions should not only provide services for those with communication disorders, but also act as their advocate in matters relating to public acceptance. I was certified in both speech pathology and audiology but nowhere in my training was it stressed that I had the responsibility to educate the public as to how to relate to persons with communication disorders.

Programs that train speech pathologists and audiologists would claim they provide an overview class entitled “Introduction to Communication Disorders.” While this is true, the class is primarily for students who are going to major in one of the fields and is didactic in nature. I felt there was a need for a class that was less knowledge based and more pragmatic. I developed such a course with three primary goals:

1. for the learner to be able to recognize the different communication disorders,

2. for the learner to understand how it feels to have a communication disorder, and
3. for the learner to know how to respond to persons with a communication disorder.

I taught this course for several years before I retired from full time teaching and now teach it as a distance education course. It is popular course, still drawing over 200 students per year as a general elective.

I derive a great deal of satisfaction teaching this class. Students relate instances back to me where they have applied the information to the betterment of a relationship with a person with a communication disorder. However, over the years students have pointed out the need to broaden this training to the general public. To this end, I have written this book and developed a web-based workshop that is available at:

http://www.JamesLFitchPhD.com

This book is divided into two parts. The first part discusses the various communication disorders: how to recognize them, how it feels to have one, and how to respond appropriately to a speaker who has a disorder. The second part relates case histories of patients with whom I have worked over the years. This part will, hopefully, give the reader insight into the world of persons with communication disorders.

I hope these efforts will provide the background needed for people to understand the challenges of those with communication disorders and to know what to do to improve the communication process for them.