Communication Disorder - Changes Being Considered For The DSM-V

Changes Being Considered For The DSM-V

The DSM-V proposed categories for Communication Disorders completely rework the ones stated above. It appears that the framers are making the categories more general in a way to capture the various aspects of communications disorders in a way that emphasizes their childhood onset and differentiate these communications disorders from those associated with other disorders (i.e. Autism Spectrum Disorders)

The new categories are as follows. A complete view of the revisions and the rationale for each may be found at dsm5.org The following partial definitions are taken directly from this source.

A 02-08 Communication Disorders

• A 02 Language Impairment – “diagnosed based on language abilities that are below age expectations in one or more language domains; LI is likely to persist into adolescence and adulthood, although the symptoms, domains, and modalities involved may shift with age”
• .A 03 Late Language Emergence--a delay in language onset with no other diagnosed disabilities or developmental delays in other cognitive or motor domains.”
• A 04 Specific Language Impairment-- language abilities are below age expectations but non-linguistic developmental abilities are within age expectations
• A 05 Social Communication Disorder-- an impairment of pragmatics and is diagnosed based on difficulty in the social uses of verbal and nonverbal communication in naturalistic contexts, which affects the development of social relationships and discourse comprehension and cannot be explained by low abilities in the domains of word structure and grammar or general cognitive ability.
• A 06 Speech Sound Disorder—Formally Phonological Disorder
• A 07 Childhood Onset Fluency Disorder—formally stuttering
• A 08 Voice Disorder—“A voice disorder is diagnosed based on abnormal production and/or absence of vocal quality, pitch, loudness, resonance, and/or duration, which usually persists over time and is inappropriate for an individual's age or sex”