My daughter S…., who is now 10 is diagnosed with SM/Social anxiety, Expressive and Receptive Language Disorder. Just recently we found out that her left ear is 50% below normal when she had a central auditory processing test performed. My question is which problem should we tackle first? I have been visiting her school twice a week, during lunch recess, to play communication games with her and her friends. She speaks in a normal voice during my visits. The speech pathologist has given me books and games on language and communication skills, in which S….. willing does with me.

Answer

Approximately 30-40% of SM children have speech and language disorders, so I am not too surprised that your daughter has a disorder. But, because our SM children are slow to respond and cannot initiate when they are anxious, we often see many of our children falsely diagnosed with disorders that they do not have. Please be sure that your daughter has been evaluated by a specialist who understands SM and understands these anxious characteristics.

If your daughter does have a S&L problem you should be working on both SM and the speech disorder. Many times as speech and language skills are improving, SM also improves. Again, please be sure to work with someone who truly understands SM.

Dr. Elisa Shipon-Blum