Speech, Language & Communication
Difficulties

It is estimated that 1 in 10 children will encounter difficulty in acquiring skills in Speech or Language or Communication, or any combination of these.
For some children these difficulties will be associated with other conditions such as cerebral palsy, hearing impairment, autism, developmental delay or a particular medical syndrome.

Other children will have SPECIFIC problems with speech, language or communication. These children may be able to do many things as successfully as other children of the same age, but for some (usually unknown) reason they have significantly greater difficulty in learning essential skills in speech or language or communication.
Such difficulties might vary across a wide range of different skills and abilities. For example a child may have clear speech, use long and complex grammatical sentences and have a large vocabulary but may not know how to use language appropriately in social situations. This is often the case with children who have social communication problems associated with autism spectrum disorders. It is very difficult for people to understand that these children are not intending to be rude – they simply have not mastered the rules for appropriate social language use.

Some children have difficulties which vary in severity across areas of development. For example, children with severe dyspraxia may have adequate social skills but speech which is very difficult to understand. Other children with specific language impairment may struggle to understand what people are saying to them and have difficulty conveying their thoughts and feelings. Their speech and social skills, however, may be relatively intact.

Other children may show difficulties with any or all of the following: