[Early language assessment and therapy]

Abstract

A child's functional language develops during his first three years as a part of its general development (motor, senses, affection and cognition) based upon components of non-verbal communication and progressive learning of phonological, lexical and syntactic capabilities, first from a receptive then from an expressive side. When difficulties in the development of a child are observed, the assessment of its capacity of non-verbal communication and understanding allows defining the necessary conditions to install an oral language. Secondly, the speech therapist evaluates the level of the language of the child compared to other parts of its development (are the deviations compared to standards, observed using development scales, homogeneous between applications?). The interdisciplinary assessment is necessary. The installation of communication, being the exchange with a person using an object, a situation or a need and the development of the verbal understanding, related to the experience of the child, are precursory to oral productions. Precocious requests of language functions (using questions, comments, stories, dialogue...), using plays adapted for every individual child, giving support to parents, allows to prevent difficult behavior caused by the frustration due to the impossibility to express himself. Waiting for a child with difficulties to talk before a speech therapist's intervention means taking the risk to react too late to correct verbal communication troubles, with possible repercussions on the person's autonomy.