Language is a fundamental part of childhood and growth; as children learn to communicate and express themselves, they form friendships and come to understand their own personalities and interests. Expressive language disorders can prevent your child from being able to transfer their thoughts into words in a functional way, inhibiting social skills development and causing stress in daily life. If your son or daughter is exhibiting any of the following three signs, they may have one of the many speech and language disorders in existence today.
- They speak vaguely. Those with expressive language disorders struggle to find descriptive words; at home, they may use the words “stuff” and “things” noticeably often. At school, they may simply repeat the teacher or their peers rather than forming their own original sentences. This is because children with expressive language disorders generally have below-average vocabulary skills and choose to instead rely on phrases they are familiar with.
- They are very quiet. You may notice that your child doesn’t seem to speak with their friends much (or may not have very many friends at all), and teachers may say that they rarely contribute in the classroom. Being unable to express themselves forces your child to avoid the risk all together as they choose to become more withdrawn and silent rather than experience the frustration and embarrassment that may come with trying to communicate.
- They are hard to understand. At home, the signs may include rapt attention in a book you’re reading to them, but the inability to talk coherently about it. At school, your child may frequently leave out essential words like pronouns and verbs, making their efforts to communicate confusing and unintelligible.
Watching your child struggle with something you cannot help them with is one of the most difficult parts of parenthood. Luckily, there is hope. Speech therapy for children is available to those of all ages, provided a proper diagnosis is made. With over 145,000 speech-language pathologists working in the U.S., you’ll be sure to find someone your child feels comfortable with. Before you know it, your child will be gaining confidence, making friends, and improving at school.
