What are Language Disorders?
A language disorder causes significant impairment with the use and/or understanding of spoken or written words. Language should not be confused with speech. Speech is how we say sounds and words. Language is the words we use to share ideas and get what we want. A language delay causes a child to develop language in the same way as other children, but later than expected. However, a language disorder causes a child to develop skills differently than his or her peers and cannot be “outgrown”.
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What are the Types of Language Disorders?
A receptive-language disorder is when a child has trouble understanding others and comprehending the meaning behind written or spoken words.
An expressive-language disorder is when a child has difficulty sharing thoughts, expressing ideas, or communicating feelings.
A mixed receptive-expressive language disorder is when a child has trouble understanding others and expressing ideas.
What are the Symptoms of a Language Disorder?
Difficulty making requests
Difficulty following directions
Difficulty with language organization
Decreased utterance length
What are the Causes of a Language Disorder?
Many language disorders are caused by unknown reasons. However, developmental delays, neurological disorders, brain injuries, hearing loss, prematurity or genetic disorders can result in language disorders.
What is the Treatment for a Language Disorder?
A speech-language pathologist will perform a language evaluation to determine your child’s strengths and weaknesses, and determine what kind of language disorder is present. Then the speech-language pathologist will work on helping your child improve their receptive and/or expressive language skills through goals tailored for your individual child's needs.
Our South Florida Pediatric Speech Therapists treat pediatric language disorders.
If you would like to schedule your child for an evaluation please contact us here.