Were You A Late Talker? : Researcher Discovers Genetic Link to Language Disorders (1372 hits)
Children with Specific Language Impairment, which affects about 7 percent of 5- to 6-year-olds, have no other developmental disorders, hearing loss or brain injuries but are late to begin talking may have a genetic link for the cause of their problems with language such as possibly (Gene KIAA0319 is a likely culprit in Specific Language Impairment), but further research is needed to confirm. These children when they do talk, they use simpler sentence structure and immature grammar. Some also develop reading problems; however, the positive part of this story as shown in the longitudinal studies show that once these kids' language system is up and running, it grows in the same way as other children! Speech Language Pathologists are essential to providing interventions to help children overcome these problems with language.
I know that for me, I'm especially challenged because I am trying to help my son overcome some problems with his language disorder. He has what's called mix receptive and expressive language disorder and it's a hurdle that myself and the speech language pathologist is trying to help him overcome. I'm really happy to know that there is hope out there and this genetic linkage provides promise for identifying children early in order for the necessary services to be deployed.
I had a meeting with his teacher and she was so not encouraging; however, the tutor which works with my little one was there for me. It's very useful for parents of children with Language problems to have the support, because these schools and the teachers they employ are only concerned about getting kids out of their classes so that their ratings and overall school scores aren't negatively effected.
Yes, I know I do try to tell it like it is with these schools. Its hard though when you as a parent have to come up against the system. I try to work with them but sometimes they go over the set boundaries. If these people aren't "put straight", they will just do whatever they feel in order to keep the status quo. Me personally, I had a great school experience but that was because I had no learning challenges; however, I kept in my mind the things that others of my family members had happen to them. It really made me sad.
Jen, "late" development is not that unusual is it? My fourth son suffered oxygen deprivation when he was born, due to the umbilical cord getting wrapped around his neck. He had some special education when he was young, and is perfectly normal now.
Tuesday, October 2nd 2012 at 12:51PM
Steve Williams
@ Brother Steve,
Nope its common to have kids fall behind in the milestones,but the key is getting early intervention but one has to be careful that our kids aren't left to fall through the cracks.
I'm happy your son was able to be helped and as a result of which he's doing fine.
