Why Do Children Have Speech or Language Problems?

Hey guys, this is Ming here, speech therapist from agentsofspeech.com today we're going to talk about why is there a speech delay. Speech delay is like a misunderstood term. I would like talk about language delay in this video, not speech delay. And language delay, or commonly known as speech delay is when a child isn't caught up with all of his or her speech and language milestones as compared to his peers. Right. So we're not here to discuss milestones because a simple Google search will give you the answers right away. Okay. There's no, you know, this information is all out there. In fact, I'll just put a link below from StanfordChilds.org and you can just click it below and check it out. Okay. So why are children delayed? Is it because the use of gadgets? Is it because you speak two to three languages at home? Is it because of, I don't know, the air or whatever? To be honest with you, most of the time we don't know. There really isn't a reason that we can pinpoint onto. If there were, then, you know, a lot of us will be out of a job because all we need to do is to let's eliminate this and that's it. Right. It's very difficult for us to know. It's a developmental problem, meaning that a child can be perfectly healthy, they imperfectly neurotypical, everything's fine, but the language can be still delayed. And this is to do with the language acquisition skills. Okay. It's something innate inside of them that has a problem with. And most of the time we really don't know. Really don't know. So we can end the video here. Well, I'll tell you some more things. Okay. First of all, environmental factors, whilst the use of gadgets does slow down a child's language development for the very reason that it's a one way communication device. Right. Number one. Number two is that it feeds information and it gives a lot of dopamine hits. Right. And normal conversation or playing with other toys aren't as fun. And just imagine us, we're stuck to our own screens all the time. I'm guessing you're watching this on your phone. Right? So that's why, you know, gadgets is not the cause for a child's, you know, autism or language disorder, delay, whatever. But recently there's something called virtual autism. I'm not totally up to speed with this, to be honest with you. It's not the topic for this video. So we're going to discuss this on a future video After I've read about it. Okay. But as goes for anything, we need to talk about environmental factors and how it determines how well we do in the society and how we are as a human. Right? So let's say that your mom is a very good musician that plays a lot of piano and so on. The likelihood of you getting more skilled as, as a musician will increase as a fact of, of environmental factors. Right. Because it's influencing you. So therefore, if we put that inside of your head, a child who watches the screen all the time is more likely to not pick up language because they're not talking all the time is on the screen and they're learning stuff from inside, therefore they don't know how to talk to you. Okay. So therefore naturally we need to give the child something language rich. And what we mean by that is that there's a lot of interaction between you and the child. There's loads of communication opportunities where you make with like just playing with simple play routines and so on. We've got loads of these videos in our YouTube channel. Just click below and just check out all those videos about creating routines and then language facilitation skills, so on, so forth. Okay. That's why language environment sometimes makes or breaks a child's language environment. Okay. Whilst it's not a cause, it's a huge risk factor and it helps to prevent language delay. Okay. Actually helps a child to learn language faster. However, some would say, how about if I speak two to three languages at home, we have a whole video on that. Maybe I'll put it up here somewhere. And basically, I don't think a lot of researchers out there conclude the same thing. Having different languages at home doesn't cause language or speech delay. Will it hinder a child's development in terms of language? Maybe. And I say that is because if you mix the languages together, it makes it very difficult for anyone to pick up what you want to say. First of all, they're dealing with two languages that had two sets of rules. So if you mix the rules together, it's very difficult. But a child who is learning a first language or a second language together, it's very easy for them to at least pick up one word with one language. Right? At least they can address that. This is a cup in English as a cup, they don't need to remember. Like if they can remember one word in one language, then I don't think adding one or two or more three languages is going to be a problem because they're just going to learn different words. In different languages. All right. The same goes to me. I'm bilingual and I know some words in Chinese, I know some words in English and some of them I know both. But you know, sometimes you just cannot know what particular word is in English. Sometimes I, I just can't remember it. Okay, so therefore it's something to do with their language acquisition. All right. Whether, how many languages you throw at the kid, it doesn't matter if the system itself is not well built. Therefore, please go check out the video I've linked below about language facilitation. All right, and other than that, let's talk about language disorders or delays associated with other disorders. Okay. Language disorders. Delay can be a result of other disorders. So for instance, if a child is on the spectrum, meaning they're diagnosed with autism disorder, right? Or autism spectrum disorder, their language acquiring abilities might be affected. In fact, most of the time it is effective because they don't know how to use it appropriately and they need a little more training to understand human interaction. And therefore when they're young, they don't know this, their communication is impaired and then the language doesn't develop as well. Okay? And this is true for children who have articulation problems like they cannot speak the correct sound. And this is, whilst this is not a language problem because of their speech problems, it makes them self conscious to not talk as much. And therefore when they don't talk as much, they don't get as much practice as their peers and the language levels go down. Okay? That's why you see that, you know, girls tend to have better language skills than boys. And I'm just, I'm just guessing here because I've seen loads of children, girls are better at talking because they always play at home and they, they, they pretend this, pretend that, and they want to be adult. Whereas guys or boys, they tend, not that when they play it just like that, right? It's not a lot of talking. Right? So also for children who have like physical conditions such as cerebral palsy or other physical disabilities, that reduces this, the per the child's speech capabilities, right? Because they cannot move appropriately, that will also hinder their language development because for the same reason they cannot play as much as other children, they cannot socialize with other children and you and as well as typically developing children, therefore it becomes a problem and then the language lags behind as well. Okay? Lastly, you can treat language delay without the cause. Without knowing the cause. Treating language is different from treating speech disorders and speech disorders. You need to know exactly why there's A pattern of this. This speech error, right? It might be that the child cannot say the S sound like S and replaces it with a T like instead. There is a reason for that. There's a reason for the. For the patterns. And therefore the treatment should be about that particular reason. But whereas language, you don't really need to know why. We have multiple studies, and we've done this long enough to know. Although speech therapy and treating children with special needs has been. Is still a very young profession. Right? But at the same time, we know what works. And what works is to teach your child language through talking to them. More reducing the language input to something that they can receive from you. Right? Teaching them how to play, how to socialize with you, teaching them structures where they can sit with you, learn with you through maybe using toys, maybe using flashcards, whatever, to help them acquire new words, new phrases, new sentences. We have loads of videos on this channel. You can just go into agents of speech and just check them out. Okay? You know, you don't really need to know why the language delay came about to affect your child's ability to talk, right? You only need to know your child's language profile and try to piece back the parts where they cannot do. For instance, if they cannot speak in two words, teach two words, man. Right? If they cannot answer, like for instance, who question, teach the concept of who. It's very simple. It's very, very easy. Okay, so that's it for this video. If you haven't, go to agentsofspeech.com checklist. There's a full list of tools and toys that we recommend to parents when they want to start home therapy as the tools that we recommend. Okay, so that's it for this video. Hopefully I'll see you in the next week's video very soon. And that's it. Bye bye.