There are no items in your basket - why not visit our shop?
Children and young people who have challenges with talking and understanding words may experience some or all of the following difficulties.
Difficulties with speech sounds can include:
Some children have difficulty in learning and using sounds in the right places for words.
Usually, most children will be using a full range of speech sounds by the time they are 5 years-old. Some children, however, will have difficulty in developing these skills. Primary-aged children may be experiencing difficulties if they:
Good sound skills are needed when learning to talk. They are also important for developing reading and spelling.
Understanding what is said to us involves a range of different skills. A young person may have difficulty in one or more of these areas. This will affect how well they understand what other people are saying.
Paying attention and listening to other people can be difficult for some children. They may be easily distracted.
We need to tell the difference between different sounds. This is known as ‘auditory processing’. We also need an effective memory for sounds and words. This is known as ‘auditory memory’.
Some children may find it difficult to remember enough words or sounds to make sense of what they are hearing.
We need to understand the words a speaker is using. Some children find it difficult to learn and remember new words.
We also need to understand the meaning of a word or the ideas behind it. Some children find it difficult to understand abstract concepts. For example, words to do with size or time.
We need to understand the way sentences are constructed. This is often called ‘grammar’ or ‘syntax’.
We also need to understand how different word endings can change the meaning of a sentence. For example, 'I pour' becomes 'I poured' if it has already happened.
Some children find it hard to understand sentences with lots of information or with complex structures.
Planning, organising and saying what we want to say involves many different skills. A child may have difficulty in one or more of the following areas. This will affect how well they express themselves.
We need to put the right words in the right order to express ourselves clearly. We also need to have enough words and the 'right' ones to say what we want.
Some children find it hard to learn or recall words. Some have difficulty choosing the right word to use. This is sometimes called 'word-finding' or 'word-retrieval difficulties'.
We need to know how to put words together so they make sense. Some children find it difficult to put words together in the right order. Some can miss words out of a sentence e.g. saying 'playing ball' instead of 'Doggy is playing with the ball’.
We need to know how the endings of words change when talking about the past or talking about more than one thing. Some children can have difficulty adding the right endings to words to show a different meaning e.g. saying 'I runned' instead of 'I ran'.
We need to link our sentences together in a logical order to make sense to other people.
Some children find it difficult to organise their ideas. Their speech may not follow a logical order. They may talk about lots of different topics in the same group of sentences. Some may find it difficult to plan what they want to say. They may need more time to organise their thoughts and language.
There are lots of complicated rules about how we use language.
These rules can be quite subtle. Sometimes the rules can change depending on the situation or who we are talking with.
This area of language is called 'pragmatics'.
Non-verbal skills are an important part of speech and language. These include:
These skills become more sophisticated as children grow older and have more experiences.
Some children have difficulty in understanding or using non-verbal skills. This can affect their speech and language development and impact on them socially.
When talking with others, there are many things we need to consider. For example, we need to:
Some children may have difficulty understanding and using these 'rules'.
There are no items in your basket - why not visit our shop?