Common Causes of Speech & Language Problems in Children & What to Do

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Bamidele Wale-Oshinowo

Previously, we shared on speech and language milestones to expect for children below 6 years (read here).

How can parents encourage their child’s early speech and language development? Why do some children experience delays and how can concerned parents help their children? Let’s examine these below.

Ways to encourage your child’s early speech and language development…

Start talking to your child from the womb, and from birth, talk to them actively.
Always respond to your baby’s coos and babbling.
Play simple games with your baby like peek-a-boo.
Listen to your child. Look at them when they talk to you. Give them time to respond.
Describe to your child what they are doing, feeling and hearing in the course of the day.
Encourage storytelling and share simple information.
Don’t try to force your child to speak.
Read books. Ask a librarian for books appropriate for your child’s age. If your baby loses interest in the text, just talk about the pictures.
Sing to your child and provide them with music. Learning new songs helps your child learn new words, use their memory and listening skills, and encourages the expression of ideas with words.
Expand on what your child says. (For example, if your child says, “Elmo!”, you can say, “You want Elmo!”)
Discuss your activities with them while doing it.
Plan family trips and outings. Your new experiences will give you something interesting to talk about before, during, and after the outing.
Look at family photos and talk about them.
Answer your child every time they speak – this rewards them for talking.
Ask your child lots of questions.
Use gestures along with words.
Don’t criticize grammar mistakes. Instead, just model good grammar.
Play with your child one-on-one, and talk about the toys and games they are playing with.
Follow your child’s lead, so you are doing activities that hold their interest as you talk.
Have your child play with kids whose language is a little better than theirs.

Here are a few factors that could be responsible for delays:

Hearing Loss: This is one of the most common causes of delayed speech and language in children. Though, it is easy to identify, it is often overlooked.

Developmental Speech and Language Disorder: This is another common cause of speech and/or language delay in children. This condition is a learning disability that is caused by the brain working differently. Most children with this disorder have trouble producing speech sounds, using spoken language to communicate and do not usually understand what other people say.

Autism: This condition affects communication. Usually, speech, language and communication problems are associated with autism; these three problems are often an early sign of autism in children. Read more about autism here.

Selective Mutism: This is a condition in which a child will not talk at all in certain situations, often at school.

Extreme Environmental Deprivation: If a child is neglected or abused, this can lead to speech and/or language delay. Also, if a child is often isolated from other children, he would not learn to speak since he cannot hear others speak.

Other causes of speech and language delay include intellectual disability, prematurity, cleft lip, tongue tie, stammering, cerebral palsy, childhood apraxia of speech (difficulty in making the right sounds in the correct order), and dysarthria (motor difficulty in creating speech).

How to help children with speech and language delays:

Explain what the child is going through to them. Advice and reassurance involving the child’s paediatrician also helps.
A referral for speech therapy may be required. The effectiveness of therapy depends on the cause for speech delay.
Multidisciplinary involvement may be required and the involvement of the parents is vital.
Management is dependent on cause and associated problems such as hearing impairment.

If the underlying problem is related to the auditory apparatus and surgery is required, children still need targeted language therapy to complete their rehabilitation.