Oral language delay: identifying and stimulating language development

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Oral Language Delay: Identifying and Stimulating Development

Oral language delay is one of the most common reasons for speech therapy consultations. It is characterized by a lag in language acquisition compared to children of the same age. This guide presents developmental milestones, warning signs, and stimulation strategies to implement in daily life.

🗣️ Download our language stimulation tools

Daily picture book
Vocabulary games
Illustrated nursery rhymes

Normal Language Development

Before discussing delay, it is essential to know the typical developmental milestones. Note that these ages are averages with great normal variability:

Age	Comprehension	Expression
0-6 months	Reacts to voice, intonations	Cooing, vocalizations
6-12 months	Understands "no", their name, some words	Varied babbling ("bababa", "mamama")
12-18 months	Understands 50-100 words, simple instructions	First words (1-20 words)
18-24 months	Understands simple sentences, questions	50-200 words, beginning of combinations (2 words)
2-3 years	Understands complex instructions, simple stories	3-4 word sentences, expanding vocabulary
3-4 years	Understands everyday language	Complete sentences, conjugation, narrative

When do we speak of delay?

We speak of language delay when the child presents a significant lag compared to these milestones, in the absence of an obvious cause (deafness, intellectual disability, neurological disorder).

⚠️ Warning signals at each age

12 months: No babbling, doesn't respond to their name
18 months: No words, doesn't point
24 months: Fewer than 50 words, no 2-word combinations
3 years: Speech incomprehensible to strangers, no sentences
4 years: Difficulties telling stories, significant grammatical errors
At any age: Regression (loss of acquired words), significant comprehension difficulties

Simple delay vs Language disorder

It is important to distinguish:

Simple delay	Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)
Time lag	Structural and persistent disorder
Catches up with stimulation	Persists despite intervention
All components uniformly affected	Dissociated profile (strengths and weaknesses)
Comprehension relatively preserved	Comprehension often also affected
Good prognosis	Requires long-term follow-up

Only a speech therapy assessment can differentiate between these two situations and guide treatment.

Possible causes of delay

Environmental factors: insufficient stimulation, excessive screen exposure, poorly managed bilingualism
Hearing disorders: repeated ear infections, undetected mild hearing loss
Medical factors: prematurity, early pathologies, hospitalizations
Genetic factors: family history of language disorders
Associated disorders: ASD, intellectual disability, oral disorder

Stimulating language in daily life

💬 Good stimulation practices

Talk a lot to the child, describe what you're doing, name objects
Get on their level: physically (face to face) and linguistically (adapt your language)
Follow their interest: talk about what interests them
Rephrase rather than correct: if they say "car broken", respond "yes, the car is broken"
Read books together every day, even briefly
Sing nursery rhymes, play with sounds
Wait: give them time to respond, don't speak for them
Don't force them to repeat, avoid "say..." or "repeat..."

What hinders language development

Excessive screen exposure (especially before age 3)
Anticipating needs: guessing what they want without them needing to speak
Excessive pressure, forcing them to repeat
Noisy environment, multiple simultaneous stimulations
Lack of quality interactions (conversations, games)

Our downloadable tools

🖼️ Daily picture book

Images to enrich vocabulary: household objects, food, animals, actions. Support for naming and showing.

Download

🎲 Vocabulary games

Fun activities to learn new words: lotto, memory, riddles. Several themes available.

Download

🎵 Illustrated nursery rhymes

Classic nursery rhymes with illustrations and gestures. Promote rhythm, memory and joy of language.

Download

📖 Simple sequential images

Small stories in 3-4 images to tell. Develops vocabulary and narrative structure.

Download

When and whom to consult?

If in doubt about language development:

Family doctor or pediatrician: for a general assessment and prescription
Speech therapist: for an assessment and possible treatment
ENT specialist: to check hearing (systematic!)
PMI: free consultations for children under 6

Don't wait "to see if it passes". Early intervention is always more effective than late intervention. Better to consult for nothing than to miss a disorder.

Frequently asked questions

📌 My 2-year-old only says a few words, is this normal?

At 2 years, we generally expect 50 words minimum and the beginning of 2-word combinations. A very limited vocabulary at this age could be a simple delay that will catch up, or the sign of a more persistent disorder. In any case, a speech therapy consultation is recommended to assess the situation and provide stimulation advice.

📌 Can screens cause language delay?

Screens don't directly cause a language disorder, but excessive exposure (especially before age 3) can aggravate or reveal difficulties. Screens replace human interactions, which are essential for language development. A child learns to speak by interacting with people, not by watching a screen.

📌 My child speaks well but we can't understand them, what should I do?

This is probably an articulation or phonology disorder rather than a language delay. The child has the vocabulary and syntax but the sounds are mispronounced or distorted. Speech therapy treatment targeted at pronunciation is then indicated.