Language Disorders

Language disorders can affect a child’s ability to understand what is being said to them and/or express in words what they are thinking and feeling. Language disorders can also impact how a child learns and interacts with others.

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When a child has a language disorder it can make it difficult for them to know which words to use to form coherent and meaningful sentences. It may cause their vocabulary to be limited and the sentences they use to be short, incomplete or ungrammatical.  A child with a language disorder may not be able to understand conversations and may have difficulty responding to basic questions.

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Children with language disorders are not only ‘late talkers’, their difficulties with language will continue, if left untreated. Children with language disorders are at a higher risk of developing emotional issues, difficulties with literacy and are at risk of poorer academic success.

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There are three main types of language disorders:

• Receptive language disorders - difficulties in the understanding of what others are saying

• Expressive language disorders - difficulty in the expression of thoughts and ideas

• Mixed receptive-expressive language disorders - difficulty in the understanding and use of spoken language.

 

Children with language disorders typically have problems with receptive and expressive language skills before the age of 4 years.

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What happens during speech therapy?

First of all we figure out where the main difficulties are by undergoing a thorough assessment.

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We will use play based activities to help stimulate language and target therapy on the key areas of difficulty and what we think will be useful for the child. This may include:

• Prepositions eg in, out, next to, under, over, above and below

• Basic concepts eg big/small, up/down, hot/cold and clean/dirty

• Following directions (1 step, 2 step, 3 step etc)

• Syntax/grammar eg sentence structure, word order, tense and plurality, use of pronouns (he/she/it), prefixes and suffixes

• Vocabulary building

• Action verbs

 

We will give you strategies and provide resources to help your child learn language more effectively.