Child-Onset Fluency Disorder Analysis

Child-Onset Fluency Disorder (COFD) is a disorder in which an individual experiences extreme difficulty communicating with others through speech, causing emotional and physical difficulty with verbal expression. COFD is a condition that has a varying presence in different age demographics, and it is complex in origin and treatment. About 5% of children are diagnosed with COFD, and a decreased presence of the disorder is seen in adults at 1%, as the majority of children who are afflicted by COFD will go into remission by their mid-teen to early adult years (Maguire et al., 2012). The understanding and treatment of COFD has evolved significantly over the course of history, the disorder undergoing a recent name change in its inclusion in the DSM-V.
However, research has supported that the most effective treatments for COFD are multidisciplinary between biological, cognitive, and behavioral therapies (Millard et al., 2009). Individuals diagnosed with COFD can present symptoms in different ways, to varying degrees, as is typical with other psychological
It is noted in the DSM-V that speech dysfunction and disruptions can be differentiated by malfunctions in sensory perceptions, typical patterns of speech for small children, medication, later onset, and Tourette’s disorder. Sensory deficits can cause speech disruption that mimics COFD, such as an impairment of hearing. However, a diagnosis of COFD is acceptable when the speech disruption is not in the usual proportion to a sensory deficit as it would be, given the speech patterns are purely the result of the deficit. With the other differential diagnosis, however, a diagnosis of COFD is not made when the patient fits these separate criteria. Physical damage caused by side-effects of medication or neurological conditions, leading to a later onset of speech symptoms, may also cause a patient to receive a differential diagnosis. However, specific symptomatic differences are notable between Tourette’s and COFD, as the “nature and timing” of the repetitions in speech are different between the two conditions (DSM-V,