About Language Language is the expression of human communication through which knowledge, belief, and behavior can be experienced, explained, and shared. It is estimated that between six and eight million individuals in the United States have some form of language impairment. Disorders of language affect children and adults differently. For children who do not use language normally from birth, or who acquire the impairment in childhood, the disorder occurs in the context of a language system that is not fully developed or acquired. ASL shares an underlying organization with spoken language and has its own syntax and grammar.
Many adults acquire disorders of language because of stroke, head injury, dementia, or brain tumors.
Language disorders are also found in adults who have failed to develop normal language because of childhood autism, hearing impairment, or other congenital or acquired disorders of brain development. Leave a message to request publications at other times.