Misunderstood Children

A child that has a hearing impairment may suffer physically through loss of balance or socially through having to communicate in alternative ways such as sign language/makaton. A physical disability such as Cerebral Palsy can be physically challenging due to being restricted in taking part in certain activities. This can affect social situations due to these restrictions and can affect a child/young person emotionally questioning why they are different causing low self-esteem.

A child with learning problems may be many developmental years behind their peers, this will have a big impact on what they can do in all areas of development including physical skills, social skills and intellectual skills. They may find it especially hard to interact with children of the same age or stay interested in conversation. They may also need to have one-to-one lessons at school to help educate them as they may not be at the same cognitive stage as peers. This may leave them feeling left out.

Due to phonemic awareness, which is concerning or involving the discrimination of distinctive speech elements of a language, speaking and spelling words is difficult at times. This can cause dyslexic children to have a hard time in social situations. According to Artemisa Shehu, Eralda Zhilla, and Eglantina Dervishi in their essay “the impact of the quality of social relationships on self-esteem of children with dyslexia”, about 5% of primary school children in the U.S. have communication problems and 3.8% of children aged 8-11 have a phonological problem. At around this age, kids become more self-conscious about what they do or how they look. If a child cannot read or speak very well and gets picked on about it, their self-esteem is harmed. This is challenging, because if a child is not helped, they will think the dyslexia is their fault. In the same essay it states, “Dyslexia is a problem that makes the child feel ashamed, because they cannot perform the task properly and it makes the child feel incompetent in the eyes of parents, feel lazy in front of teachers, feel stupid in the eyes of friends, and guilty at the sight of them” (Shehu, Zhilla, and Dervishi). These children with learning disabilities usually get named as “special” children with “special” needs. A young child trying to fit in with their peers finds it very difficult when they are constantly thought of as

* speech problems, such as not being able to pronounce long words properly and "jumbling" up phrases – for example, saying "helicopter" instead of "helicopter", or "beddy tear" instead of "teddy bear"

Development is holistic, which means one area of development interlinks with another. If a a child's speech is not as developed as its peers due to a physical disability they will not be able to communicate effectively with other children or adults. This could affect their emotional development as they may feel their opinion and needs are not being met due to their failure to communicate.

The child born thus may be able to say certain sounds but not be able to speak clearly as the vocal chords may be affected or due to damage in the brain that controls language.

Speech, language and communication difficulties can have a profound and lasting effect on children’s lives and development. These can affect their ability to communicate and interact with others. The impact of these difficulties will vary depending on the severity of the problems, the support they receive, the demands of the child’s environment

Children may face behavioural difficulties such as aggression. This could affect their speech because they may express how they feel through the aggression and not by using speech. Their speech may become poor as a result. Their language they use may not be correct and their communication maybe poor or no existent. Emotional difficulties could include going through a family breakup or grievance. The child may become withdrawn and upset. Children going through this may not want to communicate with people in turn becoming mute. This would have a negative effect on their speech. Social difficulties could include poor housing, lack of friendships and living in poverty. This would affect the child’s SLC because they may not get the socialisation

Sam is an adopted child. Quite early on his adoptive parents had concerns about his speech and language. They noticed he uses very few single words and is very reluctant to communicate with anyone. Initially they thought he is feeling shy or taking time to adjust to new environment but Sam started having more tantrums. They were worried about his communication and ability to cope at nursery school. He was referred to the Speech and Language Therapy Service when he was two years old.

For example, a child with a speech and language impairment such as a stammer will find that their SLCN will impact heavily on their BESD. It can have a negative impact on their academic performance and relationships with their peers and teachers. There is also a growing link between being bullied and having emotional, academic and even physical difficulties. (Communication Trust 2008)

With a very young child, they may not coo or babble during infancy, produce first words late and lack some sounds, only produce a few different consonant and vowel sounds, have difficulty combining sounds, avoid using difficult sounds by replacing or deleting them, and experience eating problems. In older children, common signs are that they can comprehend language much easier than they can produce it, struggle more with language production when anxious, are hard to understand, sound choppy and monotonous, seem to grope to produce certain sounds, and have difficulty imitating speech, though they are more fluid and clear with imitation than with spontaneous production. At any age, a child may portray delayed language development, issues with expressive language, fine motor impairments, hypersensitivity, hyposensitivity, and difficulty learning to write (“Childhood Apraxia,” 2011). Other reported possible symptoms of CAS include extended reliance on nonverbal communication and omission of consonant sounds in the initial and final positions of words (“Apraxia: Symptoms, Causes,” n.d.).

Consequently, this condition is shown through the child’s reluctance to speak in certain settings due to phobias of speaking and fear of people. It is usually not noticed

Speech and language delays can be problematic for preschoolers, school aged children and adolescents. These delays range in degree of severity and have many causes; physical and developmentally. Communication plays a specific and important role to all people, especially, preschool children who are developing speech and language skills at fast rate. The consequences of these delays can be devastating for the children affected and can follow them into adulthood. These effects may include academic problems, social and emotional issues and may even lead into mental illness. Children with speech and language delays need professional intervention as young as possible. However even with intervention, some children are still at risk of suffering

The student seemed to be having some difficulty while using the baby play strollers on the playground. Originally the student was trying to take another child’s play stroller away resulting in the other child crying, when he finally got a stroller of his own, the two children’s strollers accidently interlocked at the wheels causing the second child to start crying, and becoming frustrated. Finally the wheels separated and by then the teacher realized that second child was frustrated, and told the first child to walk in such a way that was away from the other child so they would not have trouble during playtime. Then I noticed the two starting come into contact, however the first child that was originally starting trouble changed direction immediately

Mouths moving constantly and words being exchanged from one individual to the next. As I sit lost, with English being my first, and only language. I still could not comprehend some of the statements or questions one bit surrounding me and invading my ears. Continuously, everyday watching the mouths of my teachers, classmates, siblings Mother, Father, and Friends. Never had a diagnosis of being illiterate nor any other forms of mental dysfunctional diseases. Possibly they were just speaking the wrong language and their pronunciation was incorrect, not mine. Not to mention, the constant calls to the doctor from my mother and visits informing them about me digging in my ears as a toddler. Along with my kindergarten teacher, Mrs.