Speech Impairments

Any of a number of conditions that interfere with the individual's ability to produce audible utterances to such a degree that the resultant sounds do not serve satisfactorily as the basic tool for oral expression. Speech difficulties fall into several categories: articulation problems in which speech sounds are omitted, replaced by substitute sounds or distorted; voice problems in which pitch, loudness or quality of voice are affected; and fluency problems including stuttering.