Average of Speech and Language Disorders in Iran, More Than %15

The Director of Speech-Language Pathology Department of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences said that the global average prevalence of speech and language disorders is %8-%10. According to research conducted in Iran, due to the prevalence of consanguineous marriages and stress, these disorders are more than 15%.  

Dr. Davoud Sobhani, pointed to the importance of early detection in the treatment of speech and language disorders and said: if these disorders are diagnosed at early ages and at preschool, the chance of treatment increases, as reported by WEBDA. Due to his words, according to the research performed in different parts of Iran- such as Tehran and Arak- speech and language disorders have been reported 10%-24%. He has considered six months as the least period required for treatment of language and speech disorders.

Dr. Sobhani pointing to the screening of more than 6000 pre-school children toward the detection of language and speech disorders in Mashhad said: this cooperation has been launched between social welfare institutions and training and education offices of Razavi Khorasan from the beginning of this year in Mashhad.  He, as a specialist in speech-language pathology continued: some disorders such as stuttering, impaired audio pronunciation, tongue and mouth movements and speech problems in children have been investigated, and in future, the greater population of pre-school children will be studied in Mashhad in terms of speech and language disorders.   

He added that a large number of clients with the speech and language disorders are children, especially the pre-school children with hearing loss, autism, speech disorders due to mental retardation such as Down syndrome, voice articulation disorders and difficulties in reading and writing. The director of speech-language pathology department of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences continued that most speech and language disorders in adulthood occur by accidents, brain trauma, brain tumors and strokes. He continued that speech and language disorders have been more common in metropolitan because of some problems such as bilingualism, putting pressure on children to learn different languages, autism disorders (due to urbanization) and stress of the mother.