A child with expressive language delays may not speak very often, though they generally understand what is being communicated to them. This can impact their development of imaginative play, manners, conversation, and can make it difficult for them to make friends or relate to their peers. These children often want to communicate however they may struggle with word retrieval, vocabulary development or combining words to form sentences to express themselves. A child with a Receptive Language delay may struggle with comprehending spoken language.  Language therapy for the preschool and school aged child may focus on developing:

 

• Listening Skills: How your child is able to understand what is being said to them and follow directions

• Grammar Skills: Your child’s ability to use grammatical markers to form complete sentences

• Vocabulary Skills: Your child’s knowledge of what things are called and their ability to understand those words when spoken as well as to recall and say the word when needed

• Question Skills: Your child’s ability to answer and ask questions with a variety of structures

• Social Language Skills (Pragmatics): Your child’s ability to use language to interact with others and follow social rules of conversation and play

• Literacy/Book Skills: Your child’s ability to read and write or use pre-reading skills such as book handling, recognizing print, etc.