What is a Speech Impairment?

According to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction:

“Speech-Language Impairment” means a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation/phonology, a language impairment, or voice impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Eligibility Standards

Speech-Language Impairment shall be determined through the demonstration of impairments in the areas of language, articulation/phonology, voice, and fluency. Language Impairment – A significant deficiency which is not consistent with the student’s chronological age in one or more of the following areas: (a) a deficiency in receptive language skills to gain information; (b) a deficiency in expressive language skills to communicate information; (c) a deficiency in processing (auditory perception) skills to organize information.

Articulation Impairment – A significant deficiency in ability to produce sounds in conversational speech which is not consistent with chronological age.

Voice Impairment – A significant deficiency in pitch, intensity, or quality resulting from pathological conditions or inappropriate use of the vocal mechanism.

Fluency Impairment – Abnormal interruption in the flow of speech by repetitions or prolongations of a sound, syllable, or by avoidance and struggle behaviors. b. The characteristics as defined above are present and cause an adverse effect on educational performance in the general education classroom or learning environment. c. Speech-language deficiencies identified cannot be attributed to characteristics of second language acquisition and/or dialectal differences.