SPEECH AND LANGUAGE - A Delay or Disorder?
SPEECH AND LANGUAGE: A Delay or Disorder? Humans are the only creations bestowed with the art of communication using spoken language. Speech is the sound produced, while language is a measure of comprehension (Saeed, 2018). Most parents are concerned when they realise that their 2 -3 yr old child has constraints regarding the ability to speak. This delay could be due to two reasons: physical conditions or environmental factors. Physical limitations, of course, can be addressed through medical therapy, but environmental variables that cause delays in speech development provide a distinct challenge. Home is the first place where the child learns to speak. According to Kahlmar (2008), an environment rich in speech expressions is one that motivates young children to talk and provides examples of how to employ organisation, emphasis, and dialect to advance their language development. Since language develo...