Language Disorders in Children

Children with language disorders have trouble understanding language or expressing themselves with language. This includes spoken, written, and signed language.

Language disorders can be present in the toddler years and persist into adulthood. Speech-language therapy can help children develop stronger language skills.
 

Children may have one or two types of language disorder:

• Receptive language disorder: Trouble understanding and processing information conveyed through language
• Expressive language disorder: Trouble expressing thoughts and ideas with language

While it’s not unusual for a child with an expressive language disorder to have no issues with receptive language, most children with receptive language disorders also have expressive language disorders.

Symptoms of a receptive language disorder include:

• Trouble learning or understanding new words
• Difficulty understanding directions
• Struggling to understand or answer questions
• Frequently misunderstanding what has been said and responding incorrectly
• Often asking for information to be repeated
• Not understanding jokes or figurative language (such as, “slept like a baby”)
• Difficulty answering questions about stories

Symptoms of an expressive language disorder include:

• Limited vocabulary
• Trouble finding the right word
• Weakness forming complex sentences
• Disorganized style of storytelling
• Trouble describing or explaining
• Frequent grammatical errors

Some children are born with language disorders, often for no known cause. Developmental language disorders can run in families: In many cases, one or more parent or sibling was also born with a language disorder.

In other children, language disorders are related to a condition or injury, such as:

• Autism spectrum disorder
• Genetic (present at birth) conditions
• Hearing loss
• Intellectual disability
• Learning disability
• Pediatric stroke
• Traumatic brain injury

A speech-language pathologist will conduct a language evaluation that may include standardized testing of your child’s language skills, clinical observation, and diagnostic therapy.

Some language delays resolve over time. A child is considered to have a language delay when their language skills lag behind that of their peers past the age of 4 or 5. In some cases, a speech-language pathologist may diagnose a language disorder sooner if they see that a child’s language skills are not developing as expected.

Early intervention is one of the most important ways to help a child with a language disorder develop language skills. This is because the years between birth and the age of 4 are the most active time for a child’s brain development. However, it’s never too late to begin language therapy.

Treatment typically includes weekly language therapy with a speech-language pathologist along with at-home exercises to reinforce language development.

The Speech-Language Pathology Program provides diagnostic evaluation, short-term therapy, and referrals for children with language disorders and other communication differences. Our services include:

• Initial evaluation to identify your child’s strengths and areas of need. After the evaluation, you will receive a comprehensive list of our recommendations for language therapy for your child at school or in the community. We follow many children and conduct periodic assessments to monitor their progress throughout childhood.
• Weekly therapy sessions for some children. Our speech-language pathologists use interactive materials to make therapy an enjoyable and engaging experience for children. For longer-term language therapy, we may refer you to services in your community.
• For children with emerging language use, we offer Parent Mediated Language Intervention (PMLI). This is an eight- to 10-week virtual parent coaching program to facilitate language development and help parents support their child’s communication needs. To participate, children must have an evaluation to see if they meet the criteria for this program.

When a child’s language disorder is related to another condition or injury, we work hand in hand with Boston Children’s recognized experts in a wide variety of childhood conditions to provide seamless care.