You may hear the terms “speech delay” or “language disorder” thrown around and used interchangeably. To a speech therapist, issues with speech and language can be two separate difficulties, requiring specific interventions!

Speech: the expression of language through articulated sounds. Someone with a Speech Delay may be under the age of 3 and not acquiring early speech sounds in the expected time frame. Someone Speech Sound Disorder may be older than 3 years old and may understand and produce language appropriately for their age, but have difficulties pronouncing specific sounds.

Language: a system for communicating; involves expressively communicating (e.g., asking for things, commenting, using a variety of word forms and tenses,) and understanding spoken/written language. Someone with Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder (MRELD) may be older than 3 years old, and show deficits in using and understanding language effectively in day to day life. A person with Expressive Language Disorder may only show difficulties with communication, and not in comprehension.

It‘s also possible for someone to have a Speech Sound Disorder and Language Disorder! In that case, understanding language and using language to communicate with others is a difficulty in addition to clearly producing speech sounds.