Social Language Disorders

Interacting with other people plays a huge role in the lives of most adults. However, social language disorders can cause trouble with basic social skills such as maintaining eye contact, reading body language, or changing the way a person communicates to match the behavior of whomever they’re speaking with.

Therapy Care in Batavia provides therapy services to determine if a person is dealing with a social language disorder, and also create a plan of action to help them overcome social obstacles.

What is a social language disorder?

Social communication is how we use our language in social environments such as school or work. It includes social interaction, social cognition, language processing, and pragmatics (the area of linguistics that has to do with how meaning is created and interpreted in verbal and nonverbal interactions).

According to ASHA, “social communication disorders can result in far-reaching problems, including difficulty participating in social settings, developing peer relationships, achieving academic success, and performing successfully on the job.”

Social language disorders cause trouble speaking in social situations, reading social cues from others, as well as difficulty reading body language. A person with a social language disorder might also struggle to know the appropriate thing to say to someone, or what tone of voice to use when they say it.

Social communication disorders may also accompany other conditions, such as:

• Learning disabilities
• Autism spectrum disorder
• Written language disorders
• Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
• Traumatic brain injuries
• Aphasia
• Dementia

Recognizing a social communication disorder

Everyone is different, however, some common issues are as follows:

• Difficulty following rules in conversations
• Struggle with understanding non-literate or ambiguous language
• Difficulty understanding what is not explicitly stated
• Has difficulty adapting communication to match the needs of the listener
• Inappropriate comments for the social situation
• Problems reading and interpreting social cues and body language

Therapy Care’s speech therapists in Batavia can help patients improve their speech and language skills for effective communication.

At your first assessment, your therapist will evaluate your current speech and language abilities as well as your problem solving and reasoning skills. From there, they’ll create a customized treatment plan that will allow you to work on and improve your social language skills.

Contact Therapy Care today

Therapy Care’s goal is to help you become more confident in your ability to communicate with others and interact in social settings through various therapeutic exercises and challenges. To learn more about our services and how we can work with you to hone your social language skills, contact our office in Batavia today.