Ming from Agents of Speech argues that while developmental problems might cause speech delays, the real cause is often unknown. Even when doctors find and fix a medical issue, the child's language may not improve. Better to teach practical skills like imitation and turn-taking that work regardless.
All these speech and language problems, it could be developmental. And to this day, we still do not know why. And even if we knew why, it doesn't mean we can solve it. I see a lot of parents, they jump through a lot of hoops, and they say, like, look, I've been trying so hard. I want to know why. What's going on? A parent recently told me my kid has some sort of, like, heavy metal poison. And they were saying, is it possible that my child is speech delayed because of this? And my response is, maybe. I don't know. Probably. I really don't know. Ask a doctor. But at the same time, you have to think about if this is the reason solving it will actually lead to better language. And most of the time, the answer is still maybe. We still don't know. So given that we don't know the reasons why, all we can do is to teach language, one by one, the reasons about why they have to learn how to communicate, how to imitate us, how to take turns, how to wait. All these we have to teach the kid so that even if they don't feel good, they can still have a way out.
