Communication Matters

Anna Margaret “Annie” Glenn is the widow of astronaut and Senator John Glenn. She suffered from a severe stutter for most of her life. Once she received treatment, and overcame her disorder, she became a tireless advocate for people with disabilities and communication disorders. In 2016, Governor John Kasich passed a law naming February 17th (Annie’s birthday) as Annie Glenn Communication Disorders Awareness Day in the State of Ohio.

A communication disorder is an impairment in the ability to receive, send, process, and comprehend concepts or verbal, nonverbal and graphic symbol systems. A communication disorder may be evident in the processes of hearing, language, and/or speech. A communication disorder may range in severity from mild to profound.

A speech sound (or articulation) disorder is when your child has difficulty making speech sounds. For example, if a child says “dup” when he is trying to say “cup”, this is a problem with speech sounds. Many children with speech disorders are also hard for others to understand.  Children begin building speech skills from birth, then develop sounds over time, and eventually, use all speech sounds correctly. Using the earlier example, it would be fine if a twelve-month-old child said “dup” for “cup”, but that would not be expected from a four-year-old child.  A child has a speech disorder when she is unable to make sounds that would be expected for her age. Both children and adults can have a speech disorder. It can occur as a result of a medical problem or have no known cause.

Only through communication can human life hold meaning.
– Paulo Freire

Welcome to the blog for Cleveland Hearing & Speech Center (CHSC). As the premier provider of hearing, speech-language and deaf programs, services and advocacy, CHSC will keep you updated as to the latest information, tips, resources, research and more related to all things communication-based. If you are wondering how important the gift of communication can be - consider these