Factors affecting language

As the child or young person progresses through school, the expectation of the child’s receptive and expressive speech and language skills change. The older the child becomes, the more they are expected to interact appropriately with both other children and with teachers. 3 commonly seen atypical situations include the child who has autism or has an Autism Spectrum Disorder, a child who has dyslexia and the child who stutters.

Autism or Autism Spectrum Disorder

A boy who has autism

Dyslexia

Six months of age

Stutter

A boy who stutters

Autism or Autism Spectrum Disorder
Autism or a child who has an autism spectrum disorder will typically have difficulties in communicating, in socialising and interacting with other people and in making sense of the world around them. These issues can mean that the child or young person has difficulty in empathising with other people and in understanding what a person is saying. Language needs to be very factual and addressed specifically to the child or young person.

Dyslexia
Dyslexia represents a group of learning difficulties. For some children it affects their to ability to process words, showing up as spelling or grammatical mistakes. For other children, it can affect how they process their thoughts in understanding and concentrating on what is required. There can be issues in understanding words, memorising and processing information in a timely way. This can relate to similar issues in processing numbers (dyscalculia) and in coordinating both gross and fine motor movement (dyspraxia).

Stutter
Many children will develop a stammer, but then learn ways of coping with this and so will seem to grow out of it.
For some young people though, stammering can persist into adulthood. The severity can vary depending on the stress levels of the person in different situations.

Stammering usually occurs at the beginning of speech, and people will often avoid certain words or speaking situations to try and hide it.
This is seen as the:
- repetition of sounds or syllables, such as saying "mu-mu-mu-mummy"
- sounds being longer, eg. "mmmmmmummy", or
- pauses, eg. where a word doesn’t get uttered or where it becomes blocked.