Speech Disturbances in a Schizophrenic Adolescent

Abstract

A 15 year old boy had a history of behavioral deviations and epileptiform convulsions but no structural defect of the speech tract. Sound spectrograms showed dyscontrol over speech functions, lack of distinctive phonetic features in words, and a propensity for noisemaking and for fusing linguistic with prelinguistic behavior. Organic and psychologic elements causing this speech disturbance are discussed, with emphasis on maternal deprivation and damage to the temporal lobe.