Aphasia A Neurological disorder caused by injury to the language centers of the brain. Symptoms include difficulty in expressing oneself when speaking, trouble understanding speech, and difficulty with reading and writing. The condition is most frequently found in adults who have suffered a stroke, brain infection, head injury, and dementia. It can be divided into four categories. Expressive aphasia which involves communicating thoughts through speech or writing, receptive aphasia pertains to understanding the spoken and written word, amnesia aphasia difficulty in using the correct names for particular objects, people, places, etc. and global aphasia the most severe form causing loss of expression and comprehension of language. (www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/aphasia )
Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) (previously known as "Central Auditory Processing Disorder" (CAPD) is a disorder in how auditory information is processed in the brain. It is not a sensory (inner ear) hearing impairment; individuals with APD usually have normal peripheral hearing ability. APD is an umbrella term that describes a variety of problems with the brain that can interfere with processing auditory information. (Wikipedia, 2007)
Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) (CAPD) is defined as an observed deficiency in one or more of these behaviors: sound localization and lateralization, auditory discrimination, auditory pattern recognition, and temporal aspects of audition. These include, temporal resolution, temporal masking, temporal integration, temporal ordering, auditory performance decrements with competing acoustic signals, and auditory performance decrements with degraded acoustic signals. (ASHA, 1996)
Occupational therapy is skilled treatment that uses or adapts activity in order to help individuals increase independence in all areas of their lives. Occupational therapy practitioners are skilled professionals whose education includes the study of human anatomy, growth and development including the social, emotional, and physiological effects of illness and injury. Services typically include: Customized treatment programs to improve one's ability to perform daily activities at home and work, evaluations with adaptation recommendations to improve safety and independence, and education to family members and caregivers. A wide variety of people can benefit from occupational therapy, including those with work-related injuries, limitations following a stroke or heart attack, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, or other serious chronic conditions, birth injuries, learning problems, or developmental disabilities, mental health or behavioral problems including Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress, problems with substance use or eating disorders, burns, spinal cord injuries, or amputations, broken bones or other injuries from falls, sports injuries, or accidents, vision or cognitive problems. (ArizOTA, 2007)
Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) Delays in the development of socialization and communication skills characterizes the group of disorders referred to as PDD. Children with PDD vary in abilities, intellect, and behaviors with symptoms that may include problems with using and understanding language; difficulty relating to people, objects, and events; unusual play with toys and other objects; difficulty with changes in routine or familiar surroundings, and repetitive body movements or behavior patterns. Autism, Asperger’s syndrome, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder and Rett’s Syndrome are among the more well known PDD. (www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/pdd)
Physical therapy (or physiotherapy) is the provision of services to people and populations to develop, maintain and restore maximum movement and functional ability throughout the lifespan. It includes the provision of services in circumstances where movement and function are threatened by the process of aging or that of injury or disease. The method of physical therapy sees full and functional movement as at the heart of what it means to be healthy. Physical therapy is concerned with identifying and maximizing movement potential, within the spheres of promotion, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. It involves the interaction between physical clients, families and care givers, in a process of assessing movement potential and in establishing agreed upon goals and objectives using knowledge and skills unique to physical therapists. The physical therapists’ distinctive view of the body and its movement needs and potential is central to determining a diagnosis and an intervention strategy and is consistent whatever the setting in which practice is undertaken. These settings will vary in relation to whether physical therapy is concerned with health promotion, prevention, treatment or rehabilitation. (Wikipedia, 2007)
Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) is a neurological disorder causing difficulties with processing information from the five classic senses (vision, auditory, touch, olfaction, and taste), the sense of movement (vestibular system), and/or the positional sense (proprioception). For those with SID, sensory information is sensed normally, but perceived abnormally. This is not the same as blindness or deafness, because, unlike those disorders, sensory information is sensed by people with SID, but the information tends to be analyzed by the brain in an unusual way that may cause pain or confusion. SPD can be a disorder on its own, but it can also be a characteristic of other neurological conditions, including autism spectrum disorders, dyslexia, Developmental Dyspraxia, Tourette's Syndrome, multiple sclerosis, and speech delays, among many others. Unlike many other neurological problems that require validation by a licensed psychiatrist or physician, this condition is most often diagnosed by an occupational therapist. (Wikipedia, 2007)