Language Difficulties in Children
What do we mean by language?
Language can be defined as a set of standardized symbols which we use to convey ideas and feelings. These symbols include sounds, letters, our facial expressions and facial movements. We use these symbols to represent objects and describe our feelings and ideas.
There are three components of language: form, content and use (Bloom & Lahey, 1978). Form is the structure of language and is related to the grammar and the sounds we use. Content refers to the ideas that the speakers want to express. Use on the other hand concerns how we use language to communicate with others. In order to communicate well with others, we need to pay attention to each of these components.
Language delay
Every child develops language and speech differently. However, most of the children would develop language and speech at roughly the same speed. There are stages at which most of the children would acquire certain skills. We call these stages “Milestones” of language development. For example, at 3 years of age, most children would be able to produce sentences consisting of 3 to 4 words. At 5 years of age, most children would be able to narrate a simple story using complex sentences.
While most children can learn language and speech without much difficulty, some children would require extra help in their speech and language development. Some of these children may learn to speak slower than their peers and their speech and language development maybe called delayed. Some children, on the other hand, are not able to use language appropriately and this would have an effect on their communication and social development. For example, they may be able to produce long and complicated sentences, but may be using them either in inappropriate contexts or manner or without any purpose.
Check out your child’s current level of language function
The section below will give you an overview of how language develops in children.
Reference:
Clark, L (1994) Learning to talk, talking to learn. Australia: Bay Books.
Sen, P. & Vasudeva, R. (2002). No More Baby Talk: A Parent’s Guide to Speech and Language Development. Singapore: Longman.
Irrespective of the level at which your child is currently functioning, specially designed language therapy can help your child bridge the gap at a faster rate. Contact ISSW for more details.
Language deviance and Specific Language Impairment
Some children may not only be delayed in their language skills but also have impaired language comprehension and/or production that are different from the children with a language delay. These problems significantly affect their communication with others. They may not be able to use sentences to express what they want to say or have unusual number of grammatical errors which are not found in other children.
One such language disorder commonly found in children is called Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Children with SLI usually have significant deficits in their language abilities and these deficits cannot be attributed to problems in hearing, intelligence or motor functioning. Due to the difficulty in understanding and expressing themselves, these children have problems with socialization and perform poorly in their academic studies.
Identification and therapy
If you suspect your child is having language problems, you may need to consider consulting a speech-language therapist. When a child comes to the clinic, the speech-language therapist will collect information about the child’s language development by formal test(s) and informal interactions with the child. The clinician will then identify the areas which require attention and work on those areas according to the priority.
