Many people think that the ability to speak just comes naturally. Parents might not be aware of the problem with children who cannot speak properly in early childhood. They treat it as commonplace and only realize the problem when their children still cannot articulate clearly as they grow older.
In fact, language disorder is a common developmental barrier among children. Usual problems include delayed language development, unclear articulation, fluency disorder and voice disorder. Given early speech therapy, most children would show marked improvement in articulation and some would even resume normal in half or one year.
Mrs. To claims to be one who loves talking, however her sons have language disorder. To Ming-chung, seven years of age, is a primary two student. He could only utter monosyllables such as "Ma" and "Pa" when he was two, in unclear articulation. His parents did not realize he had language problem, and thought that he would improve as time went by. However, a year had passed, Ming-chung still made no improvement when he was three. It was at this time that his parents began to notice a problem existed. After evaluation, Ming-chung was diagnosed as having delayed language development, and had problems such as in-coordination of big and small muscles.
Though speaking does not come easy for Ming-chung, he is most willing to express himself. With his parents' tender care, and professional speech therapist's guidance and training, Ming-chung has shown obvious improvement. Team life in school and daily participation in various kinds of activities has enhanced Ming-chung's language expression. Ming-chun, younger brother of Ming-chung, is now five. Growing up with Ming-chung, Ming-chun has a bit of his brother's problem in speech. Fortunately, initial examination revealed that his articulation was only a little unclear, with relatively slighter problem than Ming-chung. Mrs. To believes that with more attention, Ming-chun's problem could improve easily. As parents, their biggest wish is that the two brothers could communicate independently with other people, speak fluently and have their own social life when they grow up.
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