Speech Delays, Language Delays and a Little Bit of Both?

Have you ever heard somebody say that late talkers have a "speech delay"? I certainly have. It might surprise you to hear that a child who is late to talk, is not exhibiting a speech delay, but rather a language delay or a language difficulty. In addition to their language delay, they could also have a speech delay. Have I lost you yet? Let me explain: “Speech” and “language” are terms that are often used interchangeably, but they are different concepts that are strongly related to one another. The development of a child's speech has everything to do with their oral mechanism and the way that it forms sounds, words and sentences. Language, on the other hand, is the development of how a child conveys and understands meaning through gestures, spoken words and more.

When speech is delayed, a child is having difficulty producing sounds and strings of sounds for their age. This includes consonants and vowels and any combinations therein. As a result, their verbal messages may be difficult to understand. Their speech may contain articulation errors such as sound deletions, substitutions and/or distortions e.g. saying "wed" instead of "red" or saying "fumb" for "thumb".

A child can also have a language delay, where they have difficulty expressing themselves due to a lack of words, difficulty stringing words together and/or limited vocabulary and/or they have difficulty understanding language in verbal or written form. This is where late talkers come in. These children are using fewer words than we would expect them to be using for their age. Or, they may not be combining words despite having an adequate vocabulary. They typically have a good understanding of language but are having difficulty expressing themselves through words and/or word combinations. When they are using the sounds we are expecting them to and the words they are using are clear and easy to understand, then we would consider their speech to be typically-developing. But if the few words that they are using are difficult to understand, they may also have a speech delay (speech AND language delayed).

I have provided some examples of the difficulties that we see in both areas (though this list is not exhaustive!) I love being able to show this resource to parents as it helps to clarify where their child may be struggling.

Terminology matters. So let's make sure we're using the correct terms to refer to the difficulties that our children may be having.

-- Meg