Learning and Language Challenges Blogs

Expressive language disorder is a communication condition where individuals have difficulty expressing themselves verbally. People who suffer from expressive language disorder may struggle to find the right words, form complex sentences, or use appropriate grammar and vocabulary. It’s important to note...

In another article in this series, we looked at two types of speech sound disorders in children: articulation and phonology. Recall that “articulation” refers to issues with movement that may be caused by the child’s anatomy, weakness, or range of motion. “Phonology” refers to the complex patterns...

If children have all the necessary and expected speech sounds, but are still not understood by others, it’s likely because they’re producing unintelligible speech. You may call it mumbling and it can be a barrier to your child’s independence. This is particularly an issue with younger children in...

Learning English is challenging as a native speaker. The grammar rules and pronunciations are difficult enough to require lessons in every year of public education. For non-native speakers, who are accustomed to entirely different rules and pronunciations, it is far more difficult. To add to the difficulty...

As we all get used to this new normal, parents and teachers are faced with a question no one ever thought would need an answer. How do we keep our kids safe and practice social distancing while ensuring their education continues for the school year? So many parents are now juggling working from home and...

Most young children go through a developmental phase in which they make phonetic errors in speech. You might remember your toddler or three-year-old substituting one sound for another, such as saying “weave” for “leave” or they leave out a consonant and restructure the word when two consonants are...

There are many resources available for preschool and elementary-age children who have developmental language disorder, a delay in mastering language skills in children who have no hearing loss or other developmental delays. But what about older children who still struggle with language mastery? Can...

Far too often we focus on the wrong things when treating Language Processing. We focus on the pronouns, the letter combination sounds, and sentence structure. Of course, these are important but before we jump into these skills first, we tend to lose sight of the need to treat language processing (LP) first....

Nothing beats summer vacation and the chance to get out and travel. As a speech-language pathologist, you may have concerns regarding summer travel and the families you work with. Planning summer travel with a speech-impaired child can be difficult and the families you aid may have questions involving how to...

Everyone needs to communicate. The ability to communicate our needs and wants is essential to living a fulfilled life. It’s estimated that nearly 25% of people on the autism spectrum are non-verbal. Despite all the advances there have been in treating people on the autism spectrum, there is still much to...