ABSTRACT

Language impairment is not something that is obvious at birth; rather, awareness that all is not well creeps up on a parent insidiously over months and years, as it becomes apparent that the child is not talking like other children do. The typical reaction of professionals to a parent of a late-talking toddler is to offer reassurance that all will be well, given time. And, indeed, very often this advice is appropriate, because there are many late bloomers who catch up rapidly after a slow start (Paul, 2000). Our concern, though, is with those children who don’t catch up but, instead, continue to lag behind their peers in talking and/or understanding. Parents then want to know two

things: what can be done to help the child to communicate, and what is the cause of the language diffi culties. In this chapter I focus on the second question. This can be a source of considerable concern to parents, who will ask why their child is having such diffi culties when other children learn language so effortlessly. Is there anything they could have done differently to prevent language impairment? If they have other children, are they likely to have the same problems?