Speech and language

‘Speech’ and ‘language’ are two different things.

‘Speech’ errors are usually easy to hear for parents and teachers.

When we refer to a child’s ‘language’, we mean their ability to ‘understand’ and ‘use’ language. Children with language difficulties may present with any or all of the following:

Poor comprehension
Difficulty following instructions
Difficulty explaining their ideas
Frustration that others can’t understand them
Difficulty expressing themselves verbally or in writing
Learning difficulties
Poor memory

If you have concerns about your child’s speech or language, contact us info@speakandwrite.com.au

Quick reference – Problems to look out for

Presenting problems in otherwise ‘normally developing’ school age children with specific language impairments (SLI) and/or reading disorders (RD).

	Age range: 4-8yrs	Age range: 8-18yr
	Common comments from parents	Common comments from parents & teachers
Speech	Problems with speech sounds	Problems saying multisyllabic words
Receptive Language	Can’t follow instructions Can’t work unsupervised Doesn’t understand the main idea Drifts off in class, disruptive Doesn’t listen in class or at home Doesn’t have many friends	Doesn’t answer the question Doesn’t know where to start with homework, assignments, exams Doesn’t understand the main idea or inferred message Attention difficulties Doesn’t listen in class or at home Can’t follow story lines in movies Doesn’t have many friends – difficulty with humour
Expressive Language	Can’t explain himself Mixes the order of words in a sentence Can’t tell a story logically	Uses the wrong words or non specific “like” and “stuff” Sentence structure is simplistic or poorly organised Can’t explain ideas logically
Literacy	Problems learning letters and sounds Problems with sight words Can’t remember what was read Spelling problems	Problems pronouncing unfamiliar words Slow reading results in fatigue & poor comprehension Reading ok, comprehension poor - can’t remember content Problems spelling homophones (there, their) Sentence structure is simplistic or poorly organised Can’t organise writing at paragraph or text level

Please contact us if you have any concerns about your child’s speech, language or literacy development.