Speech Development & Learning Disability in Children

For a child with speech and language delay, reading may be difficult.

Walt Disney and Winston Churchill both had learning disabilities. If your child shares their difficulty it does not mean he has below average intelligence, explains TeensHealth, though he may find it harder to learn fast. He is not alone. Almost 4 million children in America have learning disabilities that affect understanding, speech and writing.

Identification

The Learning Disabilities Association of America calls learning disabilities "hidden disabilities." It is likely that your child finds it hard either to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or do math. She may have trouble with more than one of these skills. A delay in speech development could be the first sign of her difficulties. Understanding your child's learning disability means you can make certain she gets the help she needs in school to achieve success.

Types of Learning Disability

Your child may have aphasia, with difficulty in understanding spoken language and reading. He may suffer from dyslexia, a reading and language disability, or dyscalculia, a problem with arithmetic and math. Perhaps he has dysgraphia, a writing problem, or has difficulty with his motor coordination and speech sounds, called dyspraxia. He may have trouble with body language and nonverbal cues in a condition called nonverbal learning disorder. He may reverse letters and find it hard to copy accurately, due to a visual perceptual disorder.

Input and Organization

To understand and use language, written or spoken, your child performs several steps. A problem with any of these leads to learning disability.

Her brain needs to pull in information and sequence it. She may have trouble telling the difference between speech sounds or take a while to sort them. She may find it hard to mentally sequence the sounds or to understand the detailed meaning of each sound or word. Perhaps her difficulty lies in organizing the information, so it makes sense as a whole.

Memory and Output

Your child's memory affects his speech and learning ability. He may have trouble remembering each item he hears or reads, retaining it as he hears or reads more.

To put together his own sounds, words, phrases and sentences, your child must organize his thoughts, translate them into words and coordinate his muscles, so he can speak or write. He may find he can put speech together when he uses it spontaneously to get his message across, but makes mistakes when you ask a question or put him under pressure.

Speech Milestones

Speech and language development delays affect learning, so check that all is well by noting your child's development milestones. At 12 months, she should vocalize, listen to your speech and begin to say single words. By 2 years, she should have 50 words or partial words, according to KidsHealth and should follow two-step instructions. By 3 years, she should understand most sentences and use four- to five-word phrases. At 4 years, her speech should be easy to understand.

References

• TeensHealth: Learning Disabiities
• Learning Disabilities Association of America: Learning Disabilities-Signs Symptoms and Strategies
• KidsHealth: Delayed Speech or Language Development