Language Disorder
A child with a language disorder finds it hard to acquire, comprehend, and use language. The ability to understand and use language is a complex process. But most children can do it with ease. However, a child suffering from language disorder has an impairment in understanding the rules of language and using the language appropriately. Language disorders affect all forms of communication. A child suffering from receptive language disorder faces difficulty in understanding language. As a result, the child cannot comprehend words during reading and listening tasks and might have difficulties understanding what others are saying. A child with expressive language disorder finds it difficult to use language. In most cases, children with this type of language disorder can easily understand what others are saying; however, they have difficulty expressing their needs, feelings, thoughts, and ideas.
Signs and Symptoms
• Unrecognizable words.
• Mostly single words or phrases, and sentences don’t make sense.
• Replacement of sounds in words or substitution one word for another.
• Not understanding what others are saying.
• Difficulty reading or writing.
• Difficulty with word retrival and getting the message across.
Language Milestones
3 to 12 months
By 3 months, the baby coos, laughs and smiles. By 6 months, the baby starts babbling and makes speech-like sounds. By 12 months, the baby understands common words like “no,” responds to requests, and may communicate using gestures.
12 to 18 months
The child starts to say words meaningfully and attempts to put two words together. The child points to pictures, parts of the body when named, and answer simple questions.
18 months to 24 months
The child starts to speak and use two and some three-word phrases to request or talk about things. By 2 years, the child has a vocabulary of 50 words; the pronunciation may be unclear.
2 to 3 years
The child starts to speak three and four-word sentences and pronounces most words correctly. Strangers will understand most of what your child is trying to say.
3 to 5 years
The child talks and tells stories with ease as the vocabulary keeps growing. By 5, basic grammar rules are acquired and used correctly.
5 to 8 years
The child keeps on learning more words, and vocabulary increases. The language skills improve as the child becomes a better storyteller and communicator during the school years.
