A child with a communication disorder has trouble communicating with others. He or she may not understand or make the sounds of speech. The child may also struggle with word choice, word order, or sentence structure.

There are several types of these disorders. They are:

Mixed receptive-expressive language disorder. A child has developmental delays and problems understanding spoken language and speaking. Expressive language disorder. A child has developmental delays and problems speaking. Speech-sound disorders. A child has a hard time expressing words clearly past a certain age. Childhood-onset fluency disorder. This is also known as stuttering. It starts in childhood and can last throughout life. Social communication disorder. A child has trouble with verbal and nonverbal communication that is not caused by thinking problems.

Communication disorders may be developmental. Or they can be caused by:

Physical problems such as a problem in brain development Exposure to poisons (toxins) during pregnancy, such as street drugs or lead Gene problems