Receptive Language. Expressive Language. Speech Therapy. What are all these terms!?

“Your child has a Receptive Language Delay.”

“Your child has a Language Disorder.”

“Your child has a Speech Delay.”

What do all these terms mean!? While it is most common to refer to speech and language therapy as “speech therapy,” language therapy & speech therapy are actually two different things. Confusing, right!? Well let’s try to make it a little less confusing here!

Speech Therapy refers to therapy received for speech sound disorders- meaning articulation, phonology and how sounds and words are produced. It also includes voice therapy and fluency (stutter). Basically speech therapy is provided when there is a problem with components of the vocal tract: vocal folds, tongue, jaw, lips, teeth, hard palate & soft palate. 

Language Therapy refers to therapy related to word comprehension as well as word production and use. Language is broken down into Receptive Language (understanding/comprehending language) and Expressive Language (using/producing language). Some children may receive just a Receptive Language diagnosis, others may receive an overall Expressive & Receptive Language diagnosis. Let’s break it down further…

Receptive Language:  This is “understanding” language. Children must first understand language before producing it, thus receptive language skills develop before expressive language skills. Receptive language skills include: following directions, understanding meaning of gestures, answering questions, identifying objects/pictures, reading comprehension, understanding a story, etc. A Receptive Language Disorder is essentially difficulty understanding what others are saying. A Receptive Language Delay is when a child has not yet developed the receptive language skills for their chronological age. In other words, they may be behind in their comprehension skills for their age. 

Expressive Language: This is “producing” language; how a child uses language to request objects, make choices, ask questions, answer questions, and describe events. Expressive language skills include: asking/answering questions, naming objects/people, using gestures, using facial expressions, making comments, vocabulary, syntax (grammar), semantics (word/sentence meaning). An Expressive Language Disorder is difficulty sharing thoughts, ideas, & feelings or difficulty communicating wants and needs. An Expressive Language Delay is when a child has not yet developed the expressive language skills for their chronological age. In other words, they may be behind in their speaking or signing skills for their age.

As Always,

S t a y S u n n y !

Ashley Zarian Pinto M.S., CCC-SLP

Multi-lingual Speech-Language Pathologist