Language Disorder
What is a Language Disorder?
A person with a language disorder displays deficits in his/her verbal communication skills, comprehension skills, non-verbal communication skills, and/or social communication skills.
What are some symptoms of a language disorder?
A person with a language disorder may demonstrate a variety of symptoms. Depending on where the area of deficit is most significant, symptoms may include the following:
- Receptive Language Disorder: difficulty following directions, inability to answer questions, poor understanding of complex sentences
- Expressive Language Disorder: limited vocabulary, fragmented sentences, inability to tell a sequential story, inability to ask questions
- Pragmatic Language Disorder: decreased eye contact, inability to maintain a conversation with others, inappropriate gestures and postures
How can a language disorders affect my child?
Language disorders can have a significant impact on a person’s ability to function in his/her environment. Without intervention, poor language skills can lead to social isolation and an inability to sustain an independent lifestyle.
How can I help treat my child’s language disorder?
General treatment includes language therapy from a speech-language pathologist, in order to evaluate and treat the specific aspects of the language disorder. Individual and group therapy may be recommended in order to treat all areas of the disorder.
Our Approach at North Shore Pediatric Therapy
Our speech-language pathologists are trained in all areas of receptive, expressive, and pragmatic language development. With extensive knowledge in typical language, our pathologists can effectively identify and remediate language disorders, using multi-sensory modalities. The specific techniques they employ may include: discrete trials, expansion and extension, joint routines, book reading, narrative skills training, and literacy education.
