Lesser Known Disorders
Each issue of this series contains at least three lesser known disorders. Some of these disorders may contain subtypes which will also be presented. You will also notice that each disorder has a code. These codes represent the coding system for all disabilities and disorders listed in the Educator’s Diagnostic Manual(EDM) Wiley Publications.
Disorders in this issue:
LD 4.03- Dysnomia
Disability Category- Specific Learning Disability
Definition
A type of dyslexia specifically associated with difficulties in remembering names or recalling words needed for oral or written language. It is the inability to retrieve the correct word from memory when it is needed.
Explanation
Dysnomia is the learning disability associated with “the tip of the tongue” experience. Only with dysnomia, the person has this experience frequently every day. The person usually has severe difficulty in recalling words or names needed for oral or written language (Nalanda Institute, 2005).
Nominal recall problems are a frequent problem for students with learning disabilities. They have difficulties summoning up naming words. Nominal recall problems are memory problems that cause specific difficulties with nouns. Nominal recall inefficiency often coexists with auditory memory problems. It is often seen where auditory memory and visual memory problems exist, too. It is less often seen where visual memory problems exist by themselves (Apodixis Press, 2005).
This problem may be particularly prominent if the person is asked to answer a question to which he/she must supply an immediate answer. However, when the person speaks spontaneously, without prompting, his/her speech appears perfectly normal. (Nalanda Institute, 2005)
It should be noted that any medical problems associated with this child’s vision have been ruled out as a primary cause of the child’s difficulties. The difficulties are in the internal processing of information, not due to a visual impairment.
SL 2.01- Distortion Articulation Disorder
Disability Category- Speech and Language Impairment
Definition
A type of articulation disorder specifically associated with errors in the formation of individual speech sounds whereby incorrect letters are added to a word (Marshall University, 2005; New Jersey Speech and Hearing Association, 2005).
Explanation
Distortion articulation errors occur when a sound is not left out or substituted yet does not sound right. There is an attempt to make the sound but it is misarticulated. The sound is said inaccurately, but sounds something like the intended sound. Common distortions, called lisps, occur when s, z, sh, and ch are mispronounced (Turnbull et al., 2004)
Examples of distortion articulation errors include saying:
‘shlip’ for ‘ship’,
‘thand’ for ‘sand’
“bwabbit” for “rabbit”
“schleep”, “zleep” or “thleep” for “sleep” (Heward, 2006)
HI 1.01-Auditory Agnosia
Disability Category- Hearing Impairment
Definition
Auditory Agnosia refers to the inability to recognize specific sounds in the context of intact hearing. There is a distinction in this syndrome between pure word deafness, that is considered an agnosia for auditory/verbal information, and auditory agnosia, that involves an agnosia for environmental, nonverbal sounds. Cortical deafness is also a term applied to patients who essentially do not respond to any auditory information even when hearing is intact. Finally, receptive amusia is a term that refers to agnosia for music (National Academy of Neuropsychology, 2000).
Explanation
Agnosia is a rare disorder characterized by an inability to recognize and identify objects or persons despite having knowledge of the characteristics of the objects or persons. People with agnosia may have difficulty recognizing the geometric features of an object or face or may be able to perceive the geometric features but not know what the object is used for or whether a face is familiar or not.
Agnosia can be limited to one sensory modality such as vision or hearing. For example, a person may have difficulty in recognizing an object as a cup or identifying a sound as a cough. Agnosia can result from strokes, dementia, or other neurological disorders. It typically results from damage to specific brain areas in the occipital or parietal lobes of the brain. People with agnosia may retain their cognitive abilities in other areas (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, 2005b).
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