Speech and language disorders

Who does it affect?

Understanding the causes of language disorders will improve advancements in treatment.

• In Australia, more than 500,000 children have a speech and language disorder.
• One in five children in Australia starts school with a speech and language disorder.
• Children with speech and language disorders are three times more likely to have low academic performance, despite typically having average IQs.
• One in 1,000 children has childhood apraxia of speech, the most severe child speech impediment. Childhood apraxia is debilitating as children fail to learn to speak clearly and combine sounds properly. It also affects the timing and sequencing of words.

Our speech and language research

Many speech and language disorder treatments focus on symptoms without targeting the cause. Learning more about genetic and other underlying causes will help identify who may be at risk and allow more targeted language and speech therapies.

Murdoch Children’s Research Institute leads The Centre of Research Excellence in Speech and Language, an international collaboration of experts that aims to identify and understand the causes of developmental language disorders and develop therapies. In the future, blood or saliva tests may detect genes responsible for some speech disorders, ensuring earlier diagnosis and targeted intervention.

Our genetics of stuttering speech study is the world’s largest survey of the impact of stuttering disorder, recruiting 3,000 adults and children who stutter from Australia and New Zealand. It also aims to pinpoint genes that predispose to stuttering. Initial findings of the first 1,000 participants show that half report a family history of stuttering.

Our genetics of speech disorders study is researching genetic causes by recruiting children and adults with severe speech disorders including childhood apraxia. Pinpointing which genes are responsible may lead to more targeted treatments.

Another study is investigating if the drug methylphenidate, normally used in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), can improve speech and language in children with apraxia. It’s the first trial of its type to evaluate this drug as a potential childhood apraxia of speech treatment.

Our vision

Our vision is to develop better interventions so children with speech and language difficulties reach their full potential. Speech and language difficulties put children at much greater risk of literacy and academic difficulties. Children with these conditions also experience communication breakdown, where people struggle to understand what affected children say. Communication breakdown can have major negative long-term effects on children’s psychological and social outcomes. Our work aims to improve children’s self-esteem, ability to form social relationships, academic achievements and quality of life.