Expressive Language

What is Expressive Language?

Another term for “talking” is “expressive language”. It is amazing to think of everything that goes into a child’s first words. She needs to be able to hear a word, get the idea that it means something, realize that she can use her mouth to say the word, and coordinate all of the intricate motor movements needed to say the word. This shows us just how many skills are needed for speaking to take place.

How do you test Expressive Language skills?

In order to determine if a child has an expressive language impairment, we may do some testing and then compare the child’s speaking skills with norms for her age.
(http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/communicationdevelopment.htm).

Testing for a very young child may involve informal assessment, which includes speaking with the parent to get an idea of how the child communicates, observing the child interacting with the parent, and playing with the child. We may also ask the parent to complete a scale which lists the skills expected of a young child. All of this information is considered by the therapist to determine the child's approximate expressive language age and to decide if enrollment in therapy is warranted.

Testing for older children involves completion of one or more language assessments. These tests may involve tasks such as answering questions, describing pictures, telling stories, and repeating sentences. Results of the test will provide us with a language age-equivalent score. It can also help us determine if the child has any weaknesses, and if so, can assist us in formulating an individual therapy program for her.

What do the results of testing tell you?

For a very young child, we are concerned with the number of words she uses and, depending upon the age, how many words the child is putting together into phrases and sentences. As a child becomes older (age three and up), we place further focus on her grammar abilities (e.g., Does the child have pronoun confusion, such as saying, “me” for “I”? Does she speak “telegraphically” and leave out less-essential words, as in the example, “Go store.”?) By the time the child enters kindergarten, we hope to see that the child is effectively speaking in sentences with few grammar errors.

If our assessment shows that therapy is needed, we can present your child with a program specifically designed to help her achieve age-level verbal skills. Such a program may target expanding the child’s vocabulary and sentence length, improving particular grammar structures, and increasing the organization and efficiency of her expression.

What can I do to help?

To help a very young child, please refer to our information on Early Language.

For an older child, the support we provide depends upon the nature of her difficulties. One key point to always remember is that what the child says is far more important than how she says it. Most children who experience expressive language and/or speech problems are well aware of their difficulties and differences, and tend to shy away from communication. Because of this, they often speak less than children without such issues. Just as we all need to practice doing something difficult in order to get better at it, a child with an expressive language problem improves her skills by talking more. This is one reason we want to make the child feel comfortable and confident about speaking, regardless of how accurate or efficient her language skills are.

Following are suggested ideas:

The child who needs to increase the length of her utterances. If your child needs to speak in longer phrases and sentences, you can model at the level you want her to attain. For example, if your child typically says two-word phrases (e.g., "Go home."), you can add to her phrase as you acknowledge what she has said (e.g., "Yes, let's go home.") You can occasionally also ask your child to repeat after you, while emphasizing the added word (e.g., "Can you say, 'Let's go home?'")

The child with grammar errors. If you have a child who omits words or word endings or substitutes one word for another (e.g., "That my dog. Him love me."), you can respond to what she is saying by repeating and emphasizing the corrected words (e.g., "Yes, that is your dog. He loves you.") In this manner, you are acknowledging your child's comment and providing her with a model of how to correctly say it. If your child is accepting of direct correction, you may wish to occasionally bring an error to her attention and ask her to repeat the corrected form for you (e.g., "Honey, I heard you say, 'That my dog.' Let's say, 'That is my dog.'")

The child with a limited vocabulary. If your child needs to expand her expressive vocabulary and description skills, it is quite helpful to talk about what you are doing, taking care to embellish your language with new words and concepts. For instance, if your child is with you while making cookies, you can say, "We need to stir this dough some more. Right now it's lumpy--see the lumps? We want to make it smooth." Likewise, when eating the cookies, the taste and texture of them could be discussed (e.g., "These cookies are sweet and. The edge is crispy, but the middle is soft and chewy.")

The child whose language is disorganized and difficulty to follow. Sometimes a child needs help with the organization and sequencing of her language when trying to tell a story or relate an event. A wonderful way to work on this is to talk about the events of the child's day. In the morning, tell the child what she is going to do (e.g., "First, we are going to school. When I pick you up, we will go visit grandma. Then we will get an ice cream cone.") After telling your child the sequence of her day, ask her if she can tell it back to you (e.g., "So, what will we do today?") At dinner time or bed time, you and your child can discuss, step by step, what she did that day.

Keep in mind that it takes a while for a child to learn all of the intricacies and rules of language. You may become frustrated when you hear her make the same mistake over and over again, but with time and support, her skills will improve!