Speak easy

What do autism, stuttering, cleft lip and palate, and voice disorders have in common?

They all can lead to childhood communication difficulties that speech pathologists have been trained to treat. And the list doesn't stop there. The trained therapists can help children who are late talkers, primary school children who want to quit school because of learning problems, children born with cerebral palsy, and many others.

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They also deal largely with adults who have a range of difficulties, from teachers or singers whose vocal folds are damaged from overuse, to elderly people with poor hearing, and those who have suffered a stroke (see stories next page). In addition, their expertise extends to treating children and adults with swallowing problems.

One in seven Australians has some form of communication disability, which may be the result of problems with speech, voice, fluency, hearing, using and understanding language, or reading and writing.

About 8.5 per cent of three-year-olds and 12 per cent of four-year-olds - amounting to about 10 per cent of pre-primary children - have some form of communication delay or difficulty, including stuttering.

Dr Erin Godecke, postdoctoral research fellow in speech pathology at Edith Cowan University, said boys were four times more likely than girls to have a speech disorder.

There was a genetic component in about 75 per cent of disorders such as stuttering.

Despite the prevalence of communication difficulties, there was an enormous gap in services for children and the waiting lists were extensive.

"The children who come through clinics are the ones who have failed to develop normally, or are doing so at a slower rate and so they may be experiencing communication problems," she said. "This can include literacy, speech delay or speech disorders."

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