HOW DO SPEECH-LANGUAGE DISORDERS AFFECT LEARNING?

Communication is a very important part of any academic setting, especially in early childhood and elementary school settings.  Children who have speech and language disorders often have a hard time keeping up with their peers, despite having normal non-verbal intelligence.

How do these disorders affect academic achievement?

1.  FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS: Language disorders can make following directions very difficult, especially directions involving multiple steps of many descriptive words.

2.  UNDERSTANDING ORALLLY PRESENTED MATERIALS:  Children with language disorders often have difficulty understanding information presented orally, especially in noisy environments like the classroom.

3.  READING:  Children with a language-based learning disorder will often have  trouble learning to read, or will read at a level below their age.

4.  MEMORY AND OTHER COGNITIVE TASKS:  Language can  have a significant effect on the ability to commit information to memory which can greatly impact academic performance.

Research indicates that reading difficulties are prevalent in children with language impairments and that early language deficits have a strong link to later difficulty in reading.  From articulation to vocabulary, learning to read starts with learning to speak.

Speech Associates of New York

Charlotte Speech and Hearing Center