Some academics (and a few clinicians) spend a lot of time arguing with each other about what to call children’s language problems. Some of the main terms you may have come across are language delay, developmental language disorder, language impairment, language learning disability, and specific language impairment.
Sometimes, language delays are related to diagnosed physical or intellectual disabilities. Often, though, language disorders have no clear cause, even if there are some factors that increase the risk of delay, e.g. a family history of language problems or late talking.
Parents, family, friends and pre-school teachers often pick up on a child’s language problems, e.g. if, compared to other children of the same age, the child:
- doesn’t talk enough (or at all);
- speaks like someone reading a telegram, e.g. “dog eat bone”, instead of “the black dog ate the tasty bone”;
- doesn’t understand what people around them are talking about, e.g. can’t follow instructions to sit down or get dressed;
- has problems with basic concepts (colours, numbers, and other early concepts like “on/off”, “big/small” and tall/short”);
- has problems finding the right word to name people, places, objects and concepts (e.g. using vague words like “thing” and “it” to describe common household objects);
- makes lots of grammar and syntax errors when speaking or writing (e.g. confusing tenses, getting the word order wrong, leaving out plurals, not using words like “a”, “the”, and “is”, not knowing past tenses such as “taught” and “ran”, or getting “he” and “she” confused);
- doesn’t use language appropriately in different social settings, e.g. interrupting speakers or not saying “hello” when meeting someone new;
- can’t re-tell a coherent story;
- has problems reading, writing or spelling at school; and/or
- doesn’t understand jokes, famous sayings and proverbs, metaphors or similes.
Sometimes children with language delays appear passive and unresponsive to what’s going on around them. Others have no problems starting conversations, but don’t respond appropriately to what their partner says and does. Still others have problems taking turns, keeping on topic and switching topics smoothly.
Many researchers have published developmental milestones of so-called “normal language development”. But each child develops differently, and it’s important not to panic if your child doesn’t achieve every milestone on “schedule”.
If you are concerned about your child’s language development compared to his or her peers – particularly if your child seems frustrated or is withdrawing from social interaction, we recommend checking in with a speech language pathologist, who can assess your child holistically with standardised tests, observations of play, parent interviews, and an analysis of language samples. Some language problems can be difficult to treat, and, as a general rule, it’s better to pick up and start treating the problem as soon as possible.
Related articles:
- Child Language Risk Factors
- What’s the difference between speech and language?
- Principles we follow when assessing a toddler’s language
- Speaking for themselves: why I choose ambitious goals to help young children put words together
- How to identify and treat young children with both speech and language disorders
- Beyond school readiness – early signs of language delay in school-aged children
- Language problem or English as a second language issue?
- Defrazzle and reconnect: tips for families to talk to each other to stimulate language development
- Why I tell parents to point at things to help late talkers to speak
- Secret plans and clever tricks: how young children can fool us into thinking they understand more than they really do
- 8 things parents should know about effective language therapy for children: Part I and Part II
- Do kids learn how to string sentences together by listening to baby talk?
- Speech Talk 3: Raising Awareness of Language Learning Impairments (RALLI)
- Do we spend too much time on rhyming books? Phonological awareness and pre-schoolers
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Banter Speech & LanguageBanter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.
David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP).