ABSTRACT
Individuals with communication disorders present complex, confusing, and often frustrating challenges to the life care planner. Communication is defined as the transmission or exchange of thoughts and information from one individual to another, whatever the means (e.g., speech, manual sign, gestures, or other graphic symbols). Communication may be linguistic or nonlinguistic. Communication itself is an abstract concept, with disorders in communication, defined by brain-monitoring technology, sophisticated differential diagnoses, and an ability to understand normal and abnormal human speech and language. The best-qualified person to evaluate and make recommendations in this specific area is the speech-language pathologist (SLP). The area of study is accurately referred to as communication sciences and disorders, which includes speech-language pathology and audiology. Speech-language pathology includes cognitive communication, speech, language, and swallowing.
