In our clinic, we often see parents who bring their children in with similar questions: “Why can’t my child talk when he is old enough to talk? Why can my child only speak simple words? Why is my child not as articulate as other children his age?” And so on. These have become a major problem for parents.
Why don’t children speak when they are old enough to speak? What causes children not to speak? What is speech delay? Delayed speech and language development refers to children whose speech and language development is not at the appropriate level for their age, and there is a significant delay in speech and language development.
The specific manifestations are as follows:
1. Not speaking after the age of speech.
2.Speaking late or very late.
3.After starting to speak, the development is slower than other normal children or stagnant.
4.Language skills are low even though they can speak.
5.Language use, vocabulary and grammar use are lower than children of the same age.
6. Can only communicate with words but not with sentences.
7.Low communication skills.
8. Poor response to questions.
9. Difficulty understanding language and following instructions.
Most of the language delays are due to underdeveloped or dysfunctional brain, so in addition to language problems, they are also associated with other problems, such as reluctance to communicate with others, low intelligence, and abnormal behaviors such as inattention, throwing things around, lack of eye contact with others, irritability, hyperactivity, misfits, and even self and other injuries.
The common causes of speech delay in children are:
Physiological factors
1. Hearing impairment: If there is a long-term impairment in the input of spoken language during language development (e.g., moderate hearing impairment or higher), the child’s reception (comprehension) and emission (expression) of language information will be affected. The degree of language impairment is parallel to the degree of deafness.
2. Children with autism. The child’s language development is affected by the lack of concern for the presence of the language as an object of communication and the language stimulus itself.
3.Mental retardation: Chromosomal abnormalities, infectious diseases of the fetal period, perinatal disorders such as neonatal asphyxia and severe jaundice, encephalitis and meningitis, etc. (most of those with unknown causes of mental retardation) have delayed language reception and expression compared to their actual age.
4. Developmental motor aphasia (age-appropriate comprehension but impaired language expression) and developmental sensory aphasia (extremely delayed speech comprehension and expression at the same time), which are limited by language learning.
5. Abnormalities in the morphology of the articulatory organs.
Environmental factors
1. Parents focus on other aspects of the child’s development such as motor development at the expense of language development.
2. Parents do not pay enough attention to the child as an individual.
3. Lack of adequate opportunities to develop language, e.g., the family takes too much care of the child who does not need to express himself or herself and whose needs are already being met.
4. Complex language environment. The child grows up living in a bilingual or multilingual environment.
Psychological factors
Childhood mental illnesses, psychological disorders, etc. can also lead to the development of delayed language development.
With the improvement of living standards, the occurrence of language delay in children is also increasing. If your child has any of the above problems in language development, parents should detect and treat them as early as possible so as not to miss the best time for treatment.