Receptive Language Delay and Disorders
Symptoms:
- Difficulty following directions.
- Difficulty understanding age-appropriate questions.
- Difficulty pointing to pictures when named by a partner.
- Difficulty understanding what is being said or following a conversation.
- Difficulty understanding age-appropriate vocabulary.
- Difficulty understanding indirect requests, sarcasm, and/or humor.
Treatment:
Language comprehension in young children is targeted through language stimulation activities with the ultimate goal being use of new concepts, words, and grammatical structures in a child’s expressive language. Slightly older children may practice following directions of increasing length and complexity. As children grow older, receptive and expressive language therapies are more closely and immediately paired. That is, the clinician may devote several minutes to teaching a new language target, assess receptive understanding of the new target, and then immediately focus on use of the new content or form.
Language comprehension in young children is targeted through language stimulation activities with the ultimate goal being use of new concepts, words, and grammatical structures in a child’s expressive language. Slightly older children may practice following directions of increasing length and complexity. As children grow older, receptive and expressive language therapies are more closely and immediately paired. That is, the clinician may devote several minutes to teaching a new language target, assess receptive understanding of the new target, and then immediately focus on use of the new content or form.