If your child is not meeting the suggested milestones for communication, difficulties with language could be the answer! 

There are two main types of oral language difficulties: 

Receptive language difficulties mean a child may struggle to understand what others are saying. They might have trouble following directions, answering questions, or understanding stories. 

Expressive language difficulties. occur when a child finds it hard to use words and sentences correctly. They may have a limited vocabulary, use short or incorrect sentences, or find it difficult to tell a story. 

It is not uncommon for children to have difficulties in both areas.  

Language difficulties can happen for many reasons. Some children may have developmental language disorder (DLD), which affects language skills without an obvious cause. Others may have difficulties due to hearing loss, autism, or other developmental conditions.  

SLPs help children with language difficulties by using interactive activities, stories, and play-based learning. They help develop new words, grammatical markers, sentence structures, and storytelling.  

 

There are some general ideas for how to help your child  if they are struggling with language:  

• Follow their lead – follow what your child is interested in and join them in their play. Model the words that go along with what they are doing. 

• 5:1 comments to questions – For every question you ask, comment about the activity or what the child is doing 5 times. The more modelling of language you can provide the better.  

• Use routines and games to repeat language. Children love playing the same game over and over again, so this is a great opportunity to repeat some key language words for them. Useful games might be blowing bubbles, driving a car down a track, or hitting a balloon in the air. 

 

Contact a speech pathologist if you are concerned about your child’s language development. There are free assessment services in Townsville through Queensland Health or you can access fee-based private clinics like Coastal Kids.