Happy May, everyone! This month is Better Hearing & Speech Month, a month designed to raise awareness about communication and hearing disorders as well as the professionals who serve them (shout out to all of the current and future speech-language pathologists and audiologists!)
In the spirit of raising awareness and spreading information about the field, here are 30 facts that you may not know about communication disorders:
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40 million Americans have a communication disorder.
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Like many other disorders, symptoms of a communication disorder can range from mild to very severe.
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Speech-language pathologists treat many different types of communication and swallowing problems.
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Audiologists can assess and treat both hearing and balance disorders.
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Speech-language pathologists work with all ages, from helping babies feed and swallow to working with older adults with dementia.
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Nearly three-quarters of audiologists work in a health care setting.
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Over 50% of speech-language pathologists work in a school setting.
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20 to 40% of children with a family history of speech and language disorders have the same condition themselves.
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A speech-language pathologist can give a hearing screening, but only an audiologist can give a comprehensive hearing assessment.
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1 in 5 Americans have hearing loss in at least one ear.
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The majority of individuals who have hearing loss are under the age of 65.
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At age 65, one out of three people has a hearing loss.
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Almost 15% of school-age children have some degree of hearing loss.
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92% of children with permanent hearing loss are born to two hearing parents.
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Almost all types of hearing loss are treatable by an audiologist.
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More than 70 million people worldwide stutter, which is about 1% of the population.
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There are over 3 million people in the U.S. who have a stuttering disorder.
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Stuttering affects four times as many males as females.
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Stuttering affects individuals of all ages, but occurs most frequently in young children ages 2 to 6 who are still developing language.
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By the first grade, roughly 5% of children have noticeable speech disorders.
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6 to 8 million Americans have a form of language impairment.
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Approximately 20% of children receiving special education services are receiving services for speech and language disorders.
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As many as 5% of school-age children are believed to have a language disorder.
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Approximately 7.5 million people in the U.S. have trouble using their voices.
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Vocal nodules can be caused by vocal abuse such as talking loudly, cheerleading, smoking, and drinking alcohol.
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1 in 17 people will develop swallowing problems in their lifetime.
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25 to 45% of typically developing children have feeding and swallowing problems.
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About one third of strokes result in aphasia, an acquired neurogenic language disorder.
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Employment for speech-language pathologists is projected to grow 27% by 2028.
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Employment for audiologists is projected to grow 16% by 2028.
Sources: The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD).