What is it?
- It is a developmental issue where the child lags behind the typical speech and language milestones. It impacts child’s ability to produce words and use language to communicate effectively
 
Key Features
- Child’s speaking skills or expressive language skills may not be age-appropriate
 - In some cases both understanding and speaking is affected
 - It can be associated with cognitive difficulties, autism or other developmental difficulties
 - It is caused due to family or birth issue related factors
 
Characteristics
- No babbling by the age of 6-9 months
 - Reduced use of consonants and only using vowels while babbling
 - Limited vocabulary than peers of same age
 - Not speaking in 3 words sentences by 3 years of age
 - Difficulty combining words into sentences
 - Shows frustration due to difficulty in communicating
 - Limited social interaction or likes to play alone
 
Treatment
- Speech language therapist works with children to improve their language skills using play therapy and various techniques.
 - Parents are involved in the process to learn strategies which will help in generalising the language skills to different environment
 
Leave a Reply