If you have adopted a child, who seems to be delayed in language skills do not delay in seeking treatment. If your child is under the age of three years, early-on services may be available for your child free of charge. Private insurance companies may pay for speech therapy for children between three and five years. Once children reach school age, speech and language services are available free of charge through the local public school district. The school district must provide these services even if your child is not enrolled in public school. However, you will need to be willing to transport your child to the school for appointments. Early intervention is imperative for children with language delays for several reasons.

Language delays can be indicators of other more serious conditions. Of course, this isn’t always the case, but early screening can lead to a diagnosis at a much younger age. While no parents want to learn that their child has a more serious condition, beginning treatment early usually improves the outcome. If your child does not have a more serious condition, early speech services should help your child achieve age appropriate language skills before beginning school. Of course, that will help your child make friends, fit in, and avoid the frustration of not being understood by teachers and peers.

Children make friends among their peers by listening, talking, sharing information, and their attitude. Through their use of language, children learn how to behave with friends and unrelated adults. Having a language disability can prevent a child from building these social relationships. Misunderstanding cues, directions, or rules can prevent children from fitting in socially. When children do not fit in their self-esteem suffers and then they do not want to go to school. While modeling proper language use helps, and is sufficient for some children, others require additional intervention.

Children begin writing stories, reports, and essays in school at about the third grade. A child who is still struggling at this age with language expression will not do well on these assignments or written tests. Of course, not doing well in school lowers self-esteem and leads to not liking school.

We do not all bring our children home as infants or toddlers. All we can do is seek intervention as soon as the child comes into our family. When our last foster daughter arrived, we realized within 48 hours that her language skills were delayed. I was able to schedule an evaluation and begin services for her within three weeks of her arrival to our family. Sixteen months later, she had achieved age appropriate skills and had made several friends.



Photo Credit: 2007 Julia Fuller.