LANGUAGE DISORDERS: LANGUAGE DELAY

Is called language delay to the non-appearance of the same at the age in which it normally occurs, as well as the permanence of linguistic patterns that would be typical of children of less age beyond normal.

Remember that language is the ability to exchange more complex and abstract information through a code of signs.

However, in the delay of language there are not, clearly and continuously, the different degrees based on the relationships between causes, symptoms, clinical forms and treatment.

Next we will talk about specific symptoms, causal factors, assessment and treatment of language delay.

We differentiate three levels of severity, with different symptoms, whose limits are diffuse and depend, in addition to the symptoms, on the child's age:

Mild language delay

What most attracts attention are the different substitutions that the child makes to change sounds that are difficult for him to pronounce, for others that are easier for him (for example, instead of “face” say “each” or change “fire "For" fire "). These changes are known asphonological processes of simplification.

its semantic level It is slightly more scarce than in children without language delay. Your understanding, on the other hand, seems normal.

He morphosyntactic development it is at normal level; Its emissions are usually perfectly understood.

TO pragmatic level no distortions or special difficulties are noticed.

Moderate language delay

the phonological processes of simplification They are more obvious and numerous.

Poverty of expressive vocabulary to semantic level It is already notorious: they name family objects, but they do not know the name of objects and concepts known to children their age. The understanding seems much greater, although this is usually in the child's closest and family environment.

TO morphosyntactic level, interrogations, denials ... are present, while in the signs of nominal category (gender and number) and verbal (morphemes of time ...) is where the deficit can be seen. However, where the delay is most appreciated is the distortion of articles, few prepositions, elaboration of a simple sentence structure ...

In the pragmatics There are abundant orders and “verbal gestures” to call attention; little initiative and few social forms of conversation initiation, which are choppy.

Severe language delay

the phonological patterns of these children are reduced to a minimum repertoire of consonants (/ m /, / p /, / t /, / n /), of vowels (/ i /, / u /, / a /), CV word structure (Consonant + Vocal, for example / ma /) and CVCV (for example / mama /). Understanding, therefore, is difficult if it is not through context. The area of meaning is small in quantity and quality.

its syntax It is similar to that of the very primitive stages: words that function as words (holophrases), telegraphic speech (baby shoe, big ball)…

From the point of view pragmatic An egocentric conversation is perceived. It must be interpreted by the context, since there are no appropriate resources.

It may be difficult to assign a child with language delay to one or another category, but its use to get an idea of the prognosis is evident.

Possible causes of language delay

Although in the delay of the language there is an apparent absence of causes, there must be conditions, either of the child himself, or of the situation in which language learning occurs, which are different from those given in normal acquisition.

Neurobiological factors: genetic factors, cerebral dysfunction syndromes, perinatal attacks, hearing loss due to otitis in the middle ear between two and four years ...

Cognitive factors: in these children, from the general point of view, there are no disturbances in intellectual development.

Motor factors: in the issuance of language there must be great agility of the phonoarticulatory organs (mouth, tongue ...). An incorrect exercise makes this learning difficult.

Psycho-affective factors: this includes emotional relationships with parents, cultural level of the environment, personality of the child, poorly integrated bilingualism, jealousy with a younger brother, overprotective attitude of parents ...

Assessment

When evaluating the language, we take into account that it is composed of three dimensions, which will be studied: shape (How do you say a spoken message; we include the phonetic-phonological level and the morphosyntactic level), the content (what is said; constitutes the lexical-romantic level) and the use (What use is made of language, in a context and for certain purposes; here we include the pragmatic level).

Phonetic-phonological level: When talking about phonetics, we refer to sounds as such, while phonology studies phonemes. They seem the same thing, but it's not like that; for example, with the words "bed" and "house", phonetics would take care of all the sounds that, when properly joining and articulating, form each word, and phonology would be fixed in phonemes by their value as elements that allow us to differentiate a word of the other.

Morphosyntactic level: refers to the grammar or structure of language, that is, the order in which different parts of speech are presented in a sentence. Its primary function is to combine the words of a particular language to form sentences. At its simplest level, sentences are composed of subject, verb and predicate.

Lexical semantic level: refers to the meaning of what is said. The units of this level are words and morphemes (small particles included in many words, which isolated mean nothing but that together with a root cause the statement to provide one or other information, for example, the word "house" means a small house, and is a product of the union of the root "house" and the morpheme "-ita" which means small, although if we use only "-ita" we are not saying anything). Here we would also include vocabulary or lexicon.

Pragmatic level: refers to the social and interactive use of language. It is real life communication. This is a very important aspect because, in short, it is what makes a person use language properly to communicate with other people through conversation. It includes many aspects such as the use of gestures in communication, facial expression, eye contact, the purpose of the conversation ...

Language delay treatment

The treatment will be focused on both the child and his parents since sometimes it is necessary to modify certain attitudes (overprotection, poor stimulation ...) and teach techniques that help stimulate language in your child (in a post we will detail what these techniques consist of)

It is advisable to start reeducation as soon as possible, since it is shown that if there is early delay, language delay will be shown later, along with socialization difficulties.

It must also be taken into account that children with language delay are much more likely to have difficulties in learning to read and write. This risk situation is all the greater the older the child.

Conclusion

He language delay It is an acronopathy; that is, a gap between the child's language and his real age. Depending on the components that are affected it will be a mild, moderate or severe language delay. Likewise, it is advisable to start treatment as soon as possible, both directly with the child and giving guidelines to his parents.

If you have any particular questions about language delay, do not hesitate to ask by comment. We will try to help you as much as possible.