Speech & Language Delays - Communications Delay

Communication deficits can be common in young children and for many unknown reasons.  Children with delays often present with Receptive (e.g. referring to how your child “understands” what is said) or Expressive (e.g. referring to what your child is able to say or express themselves). To be good communicators children need both receptive and expressive language skills.

Often children with communication deficits meet other developmental milestones on time and parents and others may assume that they will catch up on their own. However; most do not. It can be difficult to predict which children will not catch up to their peers without intervention, but if your child have some of the hallmarks below they may warrant speech therapy.

• “quiet” as an infant (e.g. little babbling and not using single words by 15 mos)
• not talking or having less than 50 words or 2-word phrases (e.g. “more cookie) by 2 years of age
• difficulty answering social questions (e.g. name / age)
• not following 2-step directions (e.g. get your coat and shoes) by 2 years of age
• having difficulty answering “what”, “where”, “when”, “why” questions
• is not understood 90% of the time when speaking by 4 years of age
• becomes frustrated when people can’t understand him/her
• does not link pretend ideas and actions together while playing
• difficulty imitating words (e.g. copying what was said)
• uses mostly nouns (names of people, places, things), and few verbs (action words)
• a family history of communication delay, learning, or academic difficulties
• uses few gestures to communicate
• demonstrates stutter-like repetitions of words or sounds (e.g. “I,I,I I wa – want a cookie)
• a history of ear infections

Children with social difficulties (e.g. pragmatic language) can have increased difficulty as they may not follow turn-taking rules, often interrupting or talking over the top of you. In contrast, they may not acknowledge you at all and ignore your question or greeting making them appear poor-mannered or inconsiderate when that is not the case.  Children with social difficulties may not pick up on the social cues knowing when and how to use social exchanges properly.

Difficulties may include a number of skills or be limited to a particular area such as non-verbal skills (eye gaze, facial expressions, body posture, personal space, and gestures), appropriately requesting, expressing or giving information about attitudes or emotions in order to maintain conversational skills.  Talking and staying on topic or monitoring the social cues of others while speaking hard to do for children with social difficulties.

At Summit Pediatric Therapy, our Speech-Language Pathologists target communication deficits and target specific programs to improve a child’s receptive, expressive, and pragmatic language by using structured tasks teaching these skills, offering opportunities of practicing (e.g. role playing, modeling) these skills and then generalizing them into all environments.