Glossary of Communication Disorder Terms

Captioning: text display of spoken words, presented on a television or a movie screen, that allows a deaf or hard-of-hearing viewer to follow the dialogue and the action of a program simultaneously.
Central auditory processing disorder: inability to differentiate, recognize, or understand sounds; hearing and intelligence are normal.
Chemosensory disorders: diseases or problems associated with the sense of smell or the sense of taste.
Cholesteatoma: accumulation of dead cells in the middle ear, caused by repeated middle ear infections.
Cochlea: snail-shaped structure in the inner ear that contains the organ of hearing.
Cochlear implant: medical device that bypasses damaged structures in the inner ear and directly stimulates the auditory nerve, allowing some deaf individuals to learn to hear and interpret sounds and speech.
Cognition: thinking skills that include perception, memory, awareness, reasoning, judgment, intellect, and imagination.
Conductive hearing impairment: hearing loss caused by dysfunction of the outer or middle ear.
Cued speech: method of communication that combines speech reading with a system of handshapes placed near the mouth to help deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals differentiate words that look similar on the lips (e.g., bunch vs. punch) or are hidden (e.g., gag).
Cytomegalovirus (Congenital): one group of herpes viruses that infects humans and can cause a variety of clinical symptoms, including deafness or hearing impairment; infection with the virus may be either before or after birth.