Oral Language Disorders

Some “late talkers” seem to catch up to their peers on their own without extra help, but others do not grow out of their language delay and need therapy to help them with their language skills. Those kids are typically diagnosed as having a language disorder. It is not easy to predict which children are more likely to catch to to their peers, but some risk factors suggest that a child will probably continue having language difficulties, such as:

If you feel that your child is behind with his speech or language, it is never too early to seek help. Research has shown that the earlier children start speech therapy, the better their outcomes. 

So the best thing to do is consult a speech-language pathologist (SLP) and share your concerns. The SLP will suggest evaluating your child communication, language and speech skills, and advise accordingly whether therapy is needed or not. 

As explained earlier, some children may have difficulties in understanding language. The common signs could be:

Other children may have difficulties in expressing themselves. The common signs could be:

A speech-language pathologist (SLP) is a healthcare professional who specializes in speech and language disorders. It is therefore the person who you should seek if you think your child has a language delay. The SLP may work with a team to diagnose your child. The team includes you, the preschool teachers, and possibly a psychologist, neuropediatrician and others.

The diagnosis process includes interviews with both parents to obtain an exhaustive case history, with a possible use of questionnaires. The SLP will also need to know if your child’s language skills are at age level. This will involve direct observation of the child while interacting with you, playing with the child, and using standardized tests for an overview of the current child’s language skills.

The SLP might also ask for some additional testing (e.g. have your child’s hearing evaluated), because even slight hearing loss may cause difficulties with speech and language development.   

There is no scientific evidence showing that bilinguals are more prone to having speech and language disorders than monolinguals. Milestones of pre-language development are the same in all languages. A bilingual child might use words from both languages in the same sentence or might mix grammar rules from time to time, but this is not a sign of delayed development. By the age of 4, a bilingual child will learn to separate both languages correctly. 

Important to know is that if a bilingual child is having a speech or language problem, it will show up in all spoken languages.  

There are several things that caregivers may do at home to prevent language disorders or language delay.

It is important to focus on communication quite early. This means that you should talk to your baby, sing rhymes and songs, imitate your baby and encourage imitation of sounds and gestures from his side. 

You need to speak to your child in the language you know the best

Read to your child and start doing it even when he is a baby. Point out words you see and listen and answer when your child interacts.

It is also essential to set time limits for watching TV. Use more time for playing, talking and reading together.

Oral language disorders are the most common of childhood disabilities. They affect around 1 in 12 children, which corresponds to 5-8% of preschool children.

It is difficult to give a straightforward answer to this question, because there is not general rule. In general, the duration of speech therapy may depend on the severity of the language disorder, the motivation of the child and the involvement of the parents. Besides, children who get early intervention and are raised in a favorable environment tend to show more progress than those who start therapy late. In general, therapy length could go from 6 months to a couple of years. 

A majority of late talkers with simple speech delays seem to catch up to their peers by the time they enter school. However, some children will make progress and thrive through the years, but they will continue to have trouble with language.

Language difficulties can affect a child’s capacity to socialize, interact with his peers, and make friends. In fact, a child who’s facing difficulty in expressing himself might experience frustration and isolation. This might lead to behavioral issues, which could result in a negative impact on his self-esteem.

When a child is experiencing a language disorder, his learning abilities could be affected. For instance, a child who has difficulties in his oral comprehension won’t be able to understand and process verbal information easily. This means that he might experience difficulties in understanding instructions, which can impact his ability to complete the required tasks in class. 

Moreover, if the child is experiencing difficulties in his expressive skills (e.g. speech and language), he could have difficulty learning how to read and spell. In fact, expressive skills can directly impact developing reading skills, because in order to learn how to read and spell, a child need to learn how to associate sounds and letters and then segment them apart. This skill seems to be especially difficult for a child diagnosed with speech-language disorder.    

Once the assessment done, the SLP will be able to identify the child’s strengths and weaknesses, and will be able to set treatment goals for your child based on the assessment results, your demand, his needs, his potential and other important factors. 

Speech-language therapy can improve your child’s receptive skills, develop his vocabulary, teach him how to put words together to form sentences, express progressively more complex ideas, boost his phonological awareness skills, and improve social communication skills in general. This is typically done through activities that are provided during therapy sessions with a gradual complexity.

The SLP will also guide the teachers and provide you with efficient tools to develop your child’s skills on daily basis. 

You are an important part of your child’s treatment and can have an incredibly positive impact on his therapy process. 

Working together with the speech language therapist will help your child develop his language skills, learn to talk effectively, and most importantly, with confidence and enjoyment.  

Your active involvement in your child’s therapy session is highly recommended and needed. The involvement could be through your presence during therapy sessions or the constant follow up with your child’s therapist to learn tips on how to best support him/her outside of the sessions.

There are several ways to help your child: