Language Difficulties and Receptive Language Disorder
Language allows us to understand other people, express thoughts and needs, participate in conversations, learn at school, build relationships, and communicate through both spoken and written language. When a person has persistent difficulty understanding or using language, they may have a language disorder.
Language disorders can affect children and adults and may involve receptive language, expressive language, or both. These difficulties can affect communication skills, social interactions, reading comprehension, school participation, and everyday conversations.
At S.L. Hunter SpeechWorks, a Speech-Language Pathologist can assess speech and language abilities, identify areas of difficulty, and develop an individualized treatment plan.
What Is a Receptive Language Disorder?
A receptive language disorder involves difficulty understanding language. A person may hear the words being spoken but have trouble understanding their meaning, remembering information, following directions, or interpreting the larger context of a conversation.
Receptive language challenges may affect the ability to:
- Understand words and new vocabulary
- Follow one-step or multi-step directions
- Answer questions accurately
- Understand increasingly complex sentences
- Identify objects based on verbal descriptions
- Follow classroom discussions
- Understand stories and reading material
- Interpret social cues and body language
- Understand jokes, humour, or non-literal language
- Participate successfully in conversations
Strong receptive language skills are important for learning, social skills, and communication. When receptive language is affected, a child may appear to have difficulty listening or may respond in ways that seem unrelated to what was said because they did not fully understand the message.
Expressive Language Difficulties
An expressive language disorder affects a person's ability to communicate thoughts, ideas, feelings, or information using language.
Expressive language difficulties may include:
- Limited vocabulary
- Difficulty learning or using new words
- Using shorter or less complex sentences
- Trouble finding the correct word
- Difficulty organizing ideas
- Difficulty retelling a story or event
- Problems using grammar accurately
- Difficulty explaining needs or experiences
- Challenges with written communication
Children develop expressive language skills gradually throughout early childhood. A child with an expressive language disorder may have difficulty using an age-appropriate vocabulary or combining single words into increasingly complex sentences.
Expressive and Receptive Language Disorders
Some people experience both expressive and receptive language difficulties. They may have trouble understanding language while also finding it difficult to express themselves clearly.
These language difficulties can affect a person's ability to communicate at home, school, work, and in social situations. Older children may have trouble with reading comprehension, written language, classroom participation, understanding social cues, or keeping up with increasingly complex academic language.
Language problems may also affect confidence and self-esteem when a child or adult repeatedly experiences difficulty communicating with other people.
What Causes Language Disorders?
Language disorders can have different causes. Some begin during early childhood as part of a person's language development, while others are acquired later in life.
Possible factors or associated conditions can include:
- Developmental language differences
- Hearing loss
- Neurological or developmental conditions
- Certain medical conditions
- Brain injury
- Stroke or other neurological injury
- Congenital conditions or birth defects affecting communication development
- Other speech and language or communication disorders
An acquired language disorder can occur when previously established language skills are affected by a brain injury, stroke, or another neurological condition.
A language disorder is different from simply learning new words more slowly on occasion. Diagnosis considers the person's overall speech and language abilities, development, hearing, medical history, and the nature of their communication difficulties.
Signs and Symptoms of Language Difficulties
Signs and symptoms vary depending on the person's age and specific areas of difficulty.
A child may:
- Have trouble understanding words
- Struggle with following directions
- Have difficulty listening to longer information
- Use fewer words than expected
- Have trouble forming sentences
- Struggle to answer or ask questions
- Have difficulty participating in conversations
- Misunderstand social situations
- Have difficulty understanding social cues
- Struggle with school-based language tasks
In some situations, a child who does not understand what others are saying may appear distracted or may act inappropriately for the situation because the language or social expectations were not understood.
Adults with an acquired language disorder may experience changes in speaking, comprehension, reading, or written communication following brain injury or another medical condition.
Language Assessment
If there are concerns about a person's language development or communication abilities, a Speech-Language Pathologist can complete an assessment.
Assessment may examine:
- Receptive language
- Expressive language
- Vocabulary
- Sentence structure
- Language processing
- Following directions
- Comprehension
- Narrative or storytelling skills
- Social communication
- Spoken and written communication
- Reading-related language skills
For children, the Speech-Language Pathologist considers the child's specific strengths, challenges, developmental history, and communication demands at home and school.
Other professionals may also be involved when appropriate. For example, concerns about hearing may require assessment by an audiologist, while families may speak with a primary care physician when broader developmental or medical concerns are present.
Speech Therapy for Language Disorders
Treatment options depend on the person's age, diagnosis, communication needs, and specific language skills that are affected.
A treatment plan may include speech therapy focused on:
- Building receptive language skills
- Expanding vocabulary
- Improving expressive language
- Learning new words and concepts
- Understanding increasingly complex spoken language
- Following directions
- Improving sentence formulation
- Strengthening language processing
- Developing conversational skills
- Supporting reading comprehension and written language
- Improving understanding of social cues and social situations
Although people sometimes use the term speech therapist, in Ontario these services are provided by regulated Speech-Language Pathologists.
Early treatment can support language development in children, while speech therapy can also help older children and adults improve functional communication skills. Some language disorders may continue over time and can represent a lifelong condition, but appropriate support can help people strengthen their communication abilities and participate more successfully in everyday life.
At S.L. Hunter SpeechWorks, our Speech-Language Pathologists assess and treat receptive language disorder, expressive language disorder, language processing difficulties, acquired language disorders, and other communication disorders.
Contact S.L. Hunter SpeechWorks to learn more about speech and language assessment, receptive and expressive language therapy, and treatment for language difficulties.