4-year-old child with language delay

Simply put, language delay means that a child's ability to express himself or herself in language or his or her understanding of language lags significantly behind that of his or her peers. The harm of delayed language development not only involves language. Many children also have intellectual disabilities and hearing impairments. This situation is very harmful and timely measures must be taken to resolve it when it is discovered. So, what are the symptoms of delayed language development in 4-year-old children? Let’s take a look below.

Symptoms of language delay

Idiopathic language development disorders are clinically divided into two types: expressive language disorders and receptive language disorders. The former can understand language but cannot express it, while the latter has limited understanding and expression of language. When the child begins to learn to speak, language defects will be revealed. The child can make some syllables but cannot form words. He cannot remember common words, his vocabulary is very poor, and he cannot use complete sentences to describe what he needs, so his sentences are very difficult to understand. Children with this disease learn language very slowly, often 2 to 3 times slower than normal children, and their language skills are obviously delayed. For example, they may not be able to call dad or mom at the age of one, and may not be able to speak complete sentences at the age of four.

Children with idiopathic language development disorder may not have obvious psychological and emotional abnormalities in the preschool stage, and remain lively and happy. After going to school, due to difficulties in language communication, children often have behavioral problems such as anxiety, depression, withdrawal, and disobedience. These children often have learning difficulties, mainly difficulties in reading, comprehension and calculation. Since these children have normal inner language development, they can participate in some creative games and draw. Have certain interpersonal skills, such as using facial expressions and actions to express one's needs. He can show attachment to his mother and play with other children. When the children were given intelligence tests, the verbal part was poor, but the operational part was normal, showing a dissociation between verbal IQ and operational IQ.

Correctly Identifying Language Delay

To determine whether a child has delayed language development, one must also consider his or her physical age. Generally, normal children start talking at around one year old, calling "Dad, Mom", but children with delayed language development may not start talking until they are two or three years old, and some may not even say a word until they are four or five years old. For preschool children, even if they have some of the above-mentioned language symptoms, parents should not blindly conclude that they have language delays. It is best to send them to a specialized institution for examination.

Usually, delayed language development is accompanied by other problems, such as head injury, intellectual disability, hearing impairment or deafness, emotional distress, and motor dysfunction of the respiratory and vocal organs. Therefore, during the examination, we should try our best to determine the cause of the child's delayed language development. Different causes require different language intervention measures.

<<: 23-month-old baby's intellectual development

>>: What to do if a 4-year-old has language delay