Children with Language Disorders or Late Bloomers – the problem of differential diagnosis

Communication problems are often the first noticeable symptom of developmental abnormalities. About 15% of children at the age of 2 years demonstrate a lower level of speech expression than their peers. Speech development disorders may constitute either symptoms of global developmental delay or only isolated difficulties. One of the main challenges for professionals dealing with early development support is recognizing whether a child whose linguistic competence differs significantly from that of their peers suffers from a specific language impairment, or whether they belong to the group of ‘late bloomers’ who at some point, without the intervention of a specialist, will achieve an appropriate level of communication skills. Although a differential diagnosis can be extremely difficult, the analysis of the literature leads to the conclusion that there are some markers that can aid a specialist in establishing an accurate diagnosis.