How do I know if my child has a language disorder, and what can I do to help them?

What is a language disorder?

Most people don’t realize it, but language encompasses more than the sentences we speak. In the world of communication disorders, language is broken up into 3 categories: Expressive (what we say/write), Receptive (what we hear/understand/read) and Pragmatic (how we interact socially).

It is possible to have difficulties with just one or two areas, but sometimes all three areas of language are affected.

Signs of Autism

‘Autism’ comes from the from the Greek word *autos* which mean ‘self’. For parents with young Autistic children, it may seem like they live in their own little world.

People with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have difficulty in all three areas of language, though the degree of difficulty in each area is different for each individual. Some common signs of ASD in young children may include:

not looking up when their name is called
not engaging in back- and-forth babbling or play (ie. balls, cars)
asking for things by pulling you to the fridge or putting bubbles in your lap, often without eye contact
sensory under- or over-stimulation (ie. not responding when the door slams, or overreacting to other kids crying)
difficulty with flexibility or changes in routine
for children who speak verbally, echolalia is often present—that is, repeating what is said to them, or what they hear on TV

Another typical sign of ASD is having restricted, preferred activities that they enjoy, and they usually insist on doing it the same way every time.

“If you’ve met one person with Autism,

you’ve met one person with Autism.”

Each child in the world is different, and the same goes for each child with Autism. They will each have different strengths and needs, and a one-size fits all approach won’t work. Frequent adjusting and assessment is needed to keep them growing. A young mom of a 2-year-old boy with Autism, recently impressed me with her acceptance and wisdom, when she said something like: “I really hope that he will start talking and improving, but that’s not going to change him from being who he is. We just need to keep doing things differently to help him in his own way.”

Often times it is difficult to differentiate between Autism and an Expressive/ Receptive Language disorder when children are younger than 3-4 years old. Working with a speech-pathologist will help your child to start communicating more, and over time it will be easier to see the differences and target your child’s specific needs. It is important to note that the easiest to recognize will be social/pragmatic language differences.

Late-talkers

Expressive Language

Young children who are ‘late talkers’ may have difficulty only with expressive language. These kids know how to pull you to what they want, gesture and point with their hands, sometimes grunt or making whining noises, use great eye contact, and often display a sense of humor. They will understand a lot more (receptive language) than they ever say verbally, but they typically can point to a variety of animals, body parts, or people, and can follow simple to complex instructions (ie. ‘go get your shoes and meet me by the door’).

Therapy for these children will usually focus on play to entice them to use more words, more often. I like to start with ‘please’ and ‘more’ because they’re easy to imitate and you can use them all day long. Playing peek-a-boo and keep the balloon up, are also toddler crowd pleasers. Some children have responded to this type of therapy, and in just a few months, they are chattering like they’re making up for lost time!

Expressive language disorders often accompany phonological disorders (see my blog post here). These children will try to talk, but are very hard to understand, and have a very limited number of speech sounds. One little boy I evaluated labeled every picture I showed him as either ‘geh’ or ‘bah.’ In therapy, we started by helping him more readily imitate different sounds, and then couple them together with vowels (bee, boo, bay, bow, etc.).

Children with Receptive Language disorders will have difficulty understanding the grammatical details of language, and often have difficulty expressing themselves clearly.

Receptive Language or Auditory Comprehension

Some children don’t talk much, AND have difficulty understanding what you mean. These children have difficulty with both receptive language and expressive language. They often have a smaller vocabulary, don’t understand directions like:

‘your cars are behind the couch.’ (spatial terminology)
‘can you get me three apples?’ (quantitative terminology)
‘her present is the biggest one under the tree” (qualitative terminology)
‘first get the apple juice, and then bring me your shoes” (sequential terminology)

These children often need lots of exposure and explicit teaching, and practice using and understanding these words. Grammar concepts may not develop on their own, and they may need help learning and using:

past tense verbs (ie. ate, skipped, ran),
plural ’s’ (ie. girls, watches, children),
pronouns (she, he, they, her, him, us, etc.) ,
sentence structure/order, and
understanding/answering what?/where?/who?/when?/why? questions

Play-based learning is always my favorite way to teach these concepts, with repetition at the clinic and at home being the key factor.

What can I do to help my child?

Parents are key members of their child’s speech therapy team. Daily home practice of new communication skills for 5-10 minutes is a game changer!

Every time I start speech therapy with a new kiddo, I always talk to parents about setting up a daily home practice schedule. I may only see their child 1-2 times per week, and children are very good at ‘turning on’ their good speech skills when they walk into my office. In order to help them remember their new skills all the time, parents can be the most important factor. For kids who need help with articulation, practicing a new sound for 5-10 minutes each day is critical, but for kids with language difficulties, parents may need to change the way they talk throughout the day. Here just a few ideas:

Ask less Yes/No questions, instead give choices
Bathe them in language from morning to night (in the car, at the store…)
Use self-talk to describe what you are doing (I’m driving my car up the hill!)
Use parallel talk to describe what they are doing (You built a big house!)
Don’t speak for them, instead ask…. then wait expectantly! 👁👁 🙂
Have fun, and be silly! They will want to play with you.

Good luck, and enjoy these other blogs for ideas for practicing and enticing your kids to talk at home!

Language building techniques for parents: https://www.expressable.com/learning-center/tips-and-resources/15-speech-therapy-strategies-for-parents-to-use-at-home

Language building home activities: https://www.thespeechexpress.com/blog/activities-for-speech-and-language-practice-at-home

5- minute speech therapy home practice ideas:

https://www.home-speech-home.com/twenty-5-minute-speech-therapy-activities-you-can-do-at-home.html

Language Disorders