Late Talkers
Late Language Emergence (LLE), commonly referred to as "late talking" or "late language learning," is identified when a toddler's language development does not meet the typical milestones for their age, without accompanying disabilities in cognitive or motor skills. Children diagnosed with LLE may face expressive language delays—where they struggle with vocabulary acquisition, sentence structure, and articulation—or mixed expressive and receptive delays, which include challenges in both speaking and understanding language.
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) highlights that children with LLE are at increased risk of future language and literacy challenges, particularly those with both receptive and expressive delays, as they are more likely to experience poorer outcomes compared to their peers with normal comprehension abilities.
LLE might also be a precursor to other developmental issues, including:
Social communication disorder,
Autism spectrum disorder,
Intellectual disability,
Learning disability,
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
To accurately diagnose these conditions, it's essential to rule out hearing loss and closely monitor the child's overall development across cognitive, communicative, sensory, and motor domains.
Distinguishing between children with LLE and "late bloomers"—those who eventually catch up to their peers—is challenging and usually only possible retrospectively. Research indicates that late bloomers might initially use more communicative gestures compared to their peers with persistent delays, potentially compensating for limited verbal skills. Additionally, late bloomers are less likely to have simultaneous delays in language comprehension, which may help differentiate them from children who continue to experience language difficulties.