Often confused with speech therapy, language therapy refers to the arrangement and understanding of words, where speech involves producing sounds. A language disorder could impede your child’s ability to understand things being said to them, which would be called “Receptive Language Disorder”. A language disorder could also impact your child’s ability to express themselves effectively, which would be categorized as a “Expressive Language Disorder”. Children can also have difficulty with both understanding or expressing language, resulting in “Mixed Receptive/Expressive Language Disorder”. A language disorder could include:

• Trouble understanding simple sentence structure
• Struggles to find the words to express themselves
• Does not grasp the concept of simple words like “no” or “bye-bye”
• Struggles to follow simple and familiar routines or directions
• Shows limited vocabulary and a lack of natural learning

If your child exhibits any of these signs, then that would involve language issues rather than sound. A child can have perfect sound or language skills while lacking the other.

Contact us for an evaluation if you are seeing any of these signs or have additional questions about your specific child’s language abilities.