How to Help Children With Expressive Language Delay

Expressive language delay is a condition where a child is not able to express her feelings or experiences with a commonly understandable vocabulary. Children with this condition are able to understand commands and questions but are not fully capable of responding verbally. The diagnosis is made when the child is around 3 years old and usually followed by a prescription for professional speech and language therapy. There are also a variety of easy steps that parents and family of a child with expressive language delay can follow to help the child gain control over her language.

Things You'll Need

  • Flashcards
  • Memory Games
  • Age appropriate children's books

Instructions

    • 1

      Sit next to the child and lay out brightly colored flashcards. Say the name of the picture on the card out loud and encourage the child to repeat the word. Praise her extensively when she does this correctly, and repeat the word if the child has problems saying it. Once the child manages flashcards with objects, turn to cards that show feelings, which are usually presented with smiley, sad or worried faces. Repeat the exercises. If flashcards are not easily available, memory card games can have the same effect. To begin with only spend 10 to 15 minutes on the cards because the game can be hard work for a child with expressive language difficulties. After two to four weeks, depending on the interest shown by the child, you can increase the time by a few minutes each week until you have reached 30 minutes. Most young children will not be able to concentrate for longer than half an hour, and the flashcard game should not exceed that time.

    • 2

      Read a bedtime story for at least 15 minutes every day. Literature is the foremost tool to incorporate feelings, actions and dialogue into a common language. Try to read more often during the day, but if time is not available, let the child listen to spoken-word CDs. Discs with poetry are ideal because rhymes capture a child's attention. Television does not help the development of language because children focus mostly on the action and not the spoken word.

    • 3

      Bend down and look directly into the child's eyes when speaking to her. By going down to the same level, you make it easier for your child to see your facial expressions and associate them easier with your words.

    • 4

      Play word games while performing everyday tasks with the child, including shopping, dinner preparation and driving the car. Suggested games are finding opposites, defining colors or moving objects around to learn prepositions such as in, out, over and under.

    • 5

      Comment as often as possible on tasks that either your child or you perform. Describe the actions in real time and encourage the child to join in a conversation. To begin with, you might feel like you are continuously talking to thin air as the child will be hesitant to respond, but repetition will in time bring forward a response.

    • 6

      Ask the child as many questions as possible, even though the answer in certain circumstances seems quite obvious. The child has to deliberate the answer each time and will eventually learn to express her feelings with words and increase her vocabulary.

    • 7

      Sing with the child whenever you feel like it. Also investigate if there is a children's choir nearby that the child can join. Learning songs requires memory and listening skills, and new words and expressions are more easily imprinted in the child's mind if they are accompanied with a melody.

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