Characteristics
Individuals with SLD have particular trouble understanding the meaning of what others are saying, and they are challenged in using language appropriately to get their needs met and interact with others. Children with the disorder often exhibit:
- delayed language development
- difficulty understanding questions
- difficulty understanding choices and making decisions
- difficulty following conversations or stories. Conversations are "off topic" or "one sided"
- difficulty extracting the key points from a conversation or story; they tend to get lost in the details
- Stuttering or cluttering speech
- Repeating words or phrases
- difficulty with verb tenses
- difficulty with pronouns
- difficulty explaining or describing an event
- tendency to be concrete or prefer facts to stories
- have difficulty understanding satire or jokes
- have difficulty understanding contextual cues
- difficulty in reading comprehension
- difficulty with reading body language and reading/using nonverbal communication
- Problems with nonverbal cues such as personal space between others
- Difficulty with writing
- difficulty in making and maintaining friendships and relationships because of delayed language development
- difficulty in distinguishing offensive remarks
- difficulty with organizational skills
- difficuly telling left from right
People with SLD often share additional characteristics consistent with high-functioning autism. For example, they may dislike or avoid eye contact. Many have rigid habits, a shallower range of interests than most people but not as bad as Asperger Syndrome or autism, (often with a deep knowledge of their areas of interest), sensory and eating sensitivities, coordination and muscle-tone issues. They may also display striking abilities in an area like mathematics, computer science, geography, astronomy, reading, history, meteorology, botany, zoology, sports, politics or music.
Read more about this topic: Pragmatic Language Impairment