From the very first months of their child’s life, parents should stay alert to healthy language development. In adulthood, language disorders have varied causes, but all deserve thorough treatment. What are the main reasons for seeing a speech and language therapist? What does a speech and language assessment involve? How can you avoid long waits to get an appointment?

In children: language delay and language disorder are not the same thing!

We talk about a language delay in the early years of life. This is essentially a gap compared to the normal development of a child between ages 2 and 5. Between everyone’s own experience and forums of varying reliability, it isn’t always easy to diagnose this yourself. Here are a few markers to help spot whether a child may have a language delay:

From birth to 12 months, there are already signs to watch for:

  • the child doesn’t respond to their name or to sounds around them,
  • the child doesn’t point,
  • the child doesn’t smile and seems passive.

From 12 to 24 months, other symptoms should be considered

  • the child can’t produce a wide range of sounds,
  • the child doesn’t seem to understand simple instructions,
  • the child never tries to repeat words and sounds they hear.

From 2 to 4 years old, new signs should prompt parents to seek advice

  • the child doesn’t try to link words with objects or pictures around them,
  • the child doesn’t seem to understand people talking to them,
  • the child prefers to communicate with gestures rather than words,
  • the child can’t put together sentences of more than 3 words.

From ages 4 to 5, language delays tend to show up like this:

  • the child constantly struggles to find their words
  • the child has difficulty holding a conversation
  • the child doesn’t express themselves clearly, and is hard to understand

 

Past the age of 5, we start talking about language disorders. While delays are mostly caught up naturally between ages 3 and 5, persistent difficulties call for a speech and language assessment, and depending on the diagnosis, therapy. Language disorders mainly include:

  • an articulation disorder (difficulty forming certain sounds, such as a lisp),
  • a stutter (repeating sounds, syllables, or whole words, or involuntary pauses),
  • dysphasia (difficulties with comprehension, vocabulary or sentence-building errors, “telegraphic” speech). Dysphasia also affects reading and writing.

 

Language disorders in adults

 

At any age, difficulty expressing oneself should be taken seriously. A speech and language therapy approach helps restore a form of mental balance for the patient. In the case of neurodegenerative conditions in particular, being able to communicate helps someone feel seen as an individual, as a whole person. The ability to express oneself clearly helps prevent isolation, the risk of depression, and rejection by a confused entourage. Adults are mainly affected by two disorders:

  • Aphasia, which is the impairment of language abilities following brain damage. Both expression and comprehension of language are reduced. This problem shows up both in speech and in writing. What causes it? Strokes, brain tumours and head injuries, multiple sclerosis, hearing loss, and conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease or age-related dementia, among others.
  • Articulation disorders, which are fairly similar to those seen in children: difficulty forming sounds, expressing oneself, or controlling speech rate (stuttering, stammering, mumbling).

 

A clear definition of the speech and language assessment

 

Is a language or writing delay or disorder suspected? The paediatrician or family doctor will then prescribe a speech and language assessment. The first part of this session is devoted to an interview with the patient (and their family, in the case of a child).

Next, the speech and language therapist evaluates the patient’s abilities and any potential difficulties through a range of exercises and activities.

They then make an immediate assessment to determine whether or not the patient needs therapy. Depending on the diagnosis, for a child, the therapist may also offer parental guidance sessions to help maximise the chances of a positive outcome.

Finally, the speech and language therapist sends a report on this initial assessment to the referring doctor. This is an opportunity to suggest a follow-up assessment, advice for parents, further tests, or ongoing speech and language therapy.

 

Online speech and language therapy sessions, an extra asset for success!

 

Children, teenagers, or adults: not everyone is in the same boat when it comes to booking an appointment with a speech and language therapist. Some regions of France and its overseas territories are severely under-resourced. Waiting lists drag on. Families living abroad know this problem too: finding a speech and language therapist available near home is no easy task. To address this, online speech and language therapy sessions offer a solution of equivalent quality to an in-person consultation. Freed from the constraints of travel, time differences, and busy schedules, patients attend their sessions from home or from any suitable environment of their choosing. This is the e-health offering from the ORA platform, which connects qualified speech and language therapists with patients seeking an assessment or therapy, whether in France or abroad.