Language development and advice for children with language development difficulties

• Expressive language is the ability to generate symbolic output. It involves the communication of ideas, intentions and emotions.
• Receptive language is the ability to understand information. It involves understanding the words, sentences and meaning of what others say, or what is read.

Language development is one of the most important components of a child’s development. Language is the foundation of skills such as knowledge acquisition, intellectual ability, problem-solving and socializing including engaging in and contributing to relationship with others. Language can be defined into 2 areas:

• Expressive language is the ability to generate symbolic output. It involves the communication of ideas, intentions and emotions. This includes not only words but also the grammar rules that dictate how words are combined into phrases, sentences and paragraphs as well as the use of gestures and facial expression.
• Receptive language is the ability to understand information. It involves understanding the words, sentences and meaning of what others say, or what is read. Receptive language includes auditory comprehension (listening), literate decoding (reading), and mastery of visual signing.

• 0–4 months – not responding to sounds when fully awake
• 5–7 months – not cooing
  – does not use his/her voice to attract attention
• 9–12 months – not turning towards a voice
  – not responding to his/her name
• 18 months – no words other than mama/dada
  – no understanding of simple commands
  – no pointing to what he wants
• 24 months – vocabularies less than 10 words
• 30 months – no 2 word phrases
• 36 months – no 3 word sentences
  – problems understanding the child’s speech less than 75%
• 48 months – unable to converse in sentences
  – unable to tell a simple story

1. Hearing impairment
2. Intellectual disability
3. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
4. Cerebral palsy
5. Developmental language disorder (DLD)
6. Environment risk factor; e.g. poverty, lack of parental stimulation
7. Other causes

1. Depends on the nature of the child’s speech or language impairment.
2. Advice their parents on how to encourage language development, for example,
   • • Speak clearly to your child as you are their good role model
     • Talk about things that your child is interested in
     • Elicit conversations with your child by using complex grammars and rich vocabulariesAdvice their parents on how to encourage language development, for example,
     • Provide your child with the names of objects or actions.
     • Practice speaking in a natural manner, such as using open-ended questions, expand on what your child answers, be a good listener, without rushing or putting pressure on the child. Provide your child with positive reinforcement
     • Give your child the opportunities to learn through different activities, for example, reading novels and through role-play activities
     • Limit time for electronic media. (The children, who are younger than 2 years old, are not allowed to watch television at all. The children, who are older than 2 years old, are allowed to watch less than 2 hours of quality program a day.)