Speech and Language Problems
What does it look like?
Articulation Disorder
Expressive Language Disorder
Pervasive Developmental Disorder
Receptive Language Disorder
How common is it?
What causes it?
How long does it last?
What treatments are effective?
Some children may have problems communicating with others, either because they are slow to start speaking, unable to speak clearly or because they don’t pick up social cues because they cannot understand other people’s body language.
Speech and language problems are often the first signs of a learning problem. Caught early, most of these problems can be helped.
What does it look like?
Speech and language problems can be roughly divided into three different types, with some children experiencing more than one at the same time.
Articulation Disorder
Children with articulation disorder have trouble learning how to pronounce speech sounds or controlling the rate of their speech. These problems are fairly common, affecting about 10% of children under the age of 8. Some children outgrow the problems, while others can be helped with speech therapy. These conditions do not hamper a child’s school functioning or predict other more serious language disorders.
Expressive Language Disorder
Children with this condition have difficulty expressing themselves with speech. For instance, children usually progress from saying “cookie” to “want cookie” to “I want a cookie” in order to indicate what they want. Serious problems with being able string words together or use pronouns (I, you, we, them) can also lead to learning problems if early intervention isn’t made.
Pervasive Developmental Disorder
Children who have difficulty acquiring single words, who show a lack of eye contact or do not engage with others socially may have more serious problems. These latter behaviours are signs that the child may have a
Pervasive Developmental Disorder .
Receptive Language Disorder
Some children have trouble understanding speech or the meaning of full sentences. Often this is because they can’t hear or understand certain sounds or they can’t hear the differences between different sounds. Other children can’t tolerate a lot of noise or can’t hear or understand speech when there is background noise.
Children who have these conditions may appear not to be paying attention to others when they talk. Others can’t seem to follow even very simple verbal instructions. Some children with receptive language problems also have difficulty expressing themselves with speech and often go on to have problems with reading. Early intervention for any of these conditions is very important.
How common is it?
Expressive language disorders are found in approximately 3 to 5% of school-aged children. Mixed receptive-expressive language disorders are found in approximately 3% of school aged children. Problems with articulation are seen in about 10% of children under the age of 8.
What causes it?
Acquired expressive language disorders are caused by brain trauma or stroke and can occur at any age. Other children have a developmental type of expressive language problem. About half of the children with this type of disorder grow out of it. Children with an articulation problem often have problems with movement of the tongue or other speech structures. Receptive language or mixed receptive-expressive language problems are often related to hearing problems or to brain injury.
How long does it last?
How well children can do with therapy depends upon the severity of their condition is. Language disorders are, generally speaking, brain disorders, and while progress can be made in most of the conditions many children will experience life-long difficulties.
What treatments are effective?
Speech-language therapy is used for all of these disorders. Parents are encouraged to learn techniques for promoting language use or alternative forms of communication.
See the Resources section for links to other web sites that may be
helpful.
