Chapter Contents
Speech, Language and Communication
Speech, language and communication are related concepts:
- Communication is a way of getting a message across to another person. You can communicate in words, gestures, facial expressions and body movements.
- Language is a learned system of words (spoken or written), symbols or signs used to communicate. It has a structure with accepted vocabulary and rules of spelling, grammar and punctuation.
- Speech is the communication of a spoken language, with sounds, pronunciation and fluency.
Children will communicate from birth (e.g. by crying), letting their caregivers know that they have a need or feeling. Caregivers quickly learn to differentiate the sounds that babies make and understand the communication. A silent baby may be an indication of a significant health problem, and a baby who becomes silent or quieter than usual can indicate a medical emergency.
Communication and language skills are vital for a child’s development, particularly with schoolwork, friendship and employability in the future.
Learning to Communicate and Encouraging Development
Children learn to communicate with language through human interaction. The foundation skills of attention and listening develop in infancy, and parents can facilitate this by talking to babies and having ‘conversations’ with reciprocal sounds and expressions. Here are a couple of videos that illustrate this:
These are very young children who are not yet clearly speaking, but the parent is laying the foundations for language development through social interaction and reciprocal conversation. Exposure to language is key for developing fluency and everyday conversations, in addition to formal learning at nursery and school, will guide future development.
Helping children with their language development
Real-life social interaction and exposure to language are crucial. Babies and children thrive with positive human interaction and play, and most young children will will learn language quickly and naturally with positive attention and conversation – particularly if it is fun! Some ways in which parents and caregivers can promote language development include:
- Singing songs, particularly those with rhymes
- Reading stories
- Talking about what you’re seeing and doing together
- Asking questions and listening carefully to the child’s words. Building a conversation.
Television and online apps can offer learning programmes and games too. These are especially good if they are interactive so the child is asked questions and given time to reply. Watching and playing these with the child is a good way of encouraging this interaction, so that the child isn’t just passively watching.
However, The Children of the 2020s (COT20s) study’s report of January 2025 suggests that screen time should be limited for very young children due to its negative impact on speech development. The study found that 2-year-old children who averaged 5 hours of daily screen time (including TV, videos and other digital content on a screen ) could say fewer of the expected words for their age than children who had less than 1 hour of screen time (the limit recommended by the World Health Organisation).
Being actively involved in your child’s language development provides an opportunity to notice if they seem to be having difficulties making sounds, understanding questions/instructions, reading or writing. Children develop at their own pace, and delays may not be of concern, but if you notice anything that worries you please discuss this with your supervising social worker.
Please take a look at our Communication page on I-SPACE to find information and advice from our Speech and Language Therapist.
