Speach Impairments

Speech and communication is one of the biggest developmental milestones parents look for in their children as they grow up. However, neurological birth injuries like hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy and cerebral palsy can delay those long-awaited first words and communication signals.

In unfortunate cases, birth injury negligence during a mother’s pregnancy or during labor contributes to this brain damage at birth, setting the stage for later complications like speech impairment and language disorders. When these complications stem from preventable medical mistakes at birth, it counts as medical malpractice.

Birth Complication Lawyers
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The birth injury attorneys at Miller Weisbrod Olesky are dedicated to providing compassionate legal support to families and their children living with a birth injury, such as cerebral palsy.

Over the past three decades, the nationally recognized team of birth injury attorneys, registered nurses, and nurse-attorneys at Miller Weisbrod Olesky have established a proven track record of delivering justice for children and families who have unfairly suffered from the consequences of birth injury negligence.

We are prepared to meticulously investigate the circumstances of your case, gather crucial medical records, consult with top medical experts, and fight tirelessly to secure the compensation you deserve for your child’s injury, all at no upfront cost to you.

We represent families and their children in numerous service areas throughout the United States. You can contact us today to schedule your free legal consultation by calling our toll-free line at (888) 987-0005 or by filling out our online request form. We work on a contingency fee basis, meaning you won’t pay any legal fees unless we win your case. We only receive payment once you do.

Speech delays and language disorders both refer to issues with a child’s communication, but they actually have two distinct definitions. Speech delays occur when a child struggles specifically with engaging the muscles needed to form words and create sounds to speak.

A language disorder, on the other hand, can relate to a child’s difficulty understanding speech and language (known as a receptive language disorder). This can also translate into challenges with speaking and using language correctly (known as an expressive language disorder). A language disorder can sometimes result in a speech delay.

“Speech” refers to the actual sound that is made to speak. Many different things can cause a speech delay, such as an oral impairment like dysarthria where the child has no control over the muscles in the mouth needed to speak. Or it could come from a specific part of the brain being injured.

“Language” goes beyond just speech, referring to the ability to understand words and how to use them. Children with speech disorders like dysarthria know what they want to say and how to say it but are blocked by the physical inability to do so. Children with language disorders often aren’t sure of how to say or phrase what they mean, either internally or externally.

Speech impairments (both speech delays and language disorders) are among the most common developmental delays in children, and birth injuries like HIE and cerebral palsy significantly increase that likelihood.

A child may show several signs and symptoms of a speech or language impairment well before they are old enough to speak.

One of the first signs a child may develop a speech or language impairment is when they undergo brain damage at birth. Many parts of the brain work to control speech, including the basal ganglia, cerebrum, cerebellum, and the motor neurons that make up the body’s central nervous system.

When a child undergoes a labor and delivery complication like birth asphyxia, it can restrict sufficient levels of oxygenated blood from reaching the brain and result in injuries like hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). HIE has been shown to cause many birth complications and developmental delays, including speech delays and other communication-related issues.

Children with HIE and similar types of birth injuries may also suffer from hearing impairment, which is critical for developing language skills from an early age. If a child is not reacting to external stimuli or not responding with either physical or verbal cues when called on, it can be a sign of hearing impairments that may result in a language delay.

Throughout childhood, there are certain developmental milestones children are expected to reach as they age. When parents notice that their child is not reaching these milestones at the expected age, they should alert their primary healthcare provider during scheduled checkups.

Signs at 6 Months

• Does not smile nor laugh
• Does not babble
• Does not follow sounds with their eyes

Signs at 9 Months

• Not reacting when others speak
• Does not recognize or respond to their name being called
• Does not make hand movements or gestures like pointing
• Making only a few sounds

Signs at 12 Months

• Has yet to say their first words
• Does not respond to simple spoken requests
• Does not engage in playful activities like peek-a-boo

Signs at 18 Months

• Saying fewer than 50 words
• Extremely limited vocabulary
• Is disengaged from stories, songs, and nursery rhymes

Signs by 24 Months

• Trouble putting words together into a sentence
• Difficulty answering simple questions
• Doesn’t use nonverbal cues like nodding or blowing a kiss
• Speech is hard to understand, even for close family and friends

It’s important to note that missing any of these developmental milestones doesn’t necessarily confirm the child has a speech delay or language disorder. It takes examination from a licensed specialist such as a speech-language pathologist or other credited professional to diagnose a child with either a speech impairment or language disorder.

When treating speech delays and language disorders, early intervention is crucial to seeing the most improvement. Medical professionals should refer a family as soon as a child’s communication delays are suspected.

Before diagnosing a speech or language impairment, medical professionals should first test the child’s hearing to confirm that their condition isn’t the result of auditory impairments. Once it is confirmed that the child’s speech impairments do not stem from hearing disabilities, healthcare providers can move forward with planning treatment.

Speech therapy has proven to be an effective treatment for children with all types of speech and language disorders.

A speech-language pathologist (SLP) can first conduct a series of tests to pinpoint where the child’s struggles are stemming from. These tests may include oral cavity exams, audiology tests, as well as cognitive and articulation assessments.

Once the type of impairment (either with speech or with language or both) is identified and a baseline has been established, the specialist can then begin treatment and helping the child build their skills through targeted exercises. The specific strategies that the SLP chooses to employ will depend on each individual child’s needs, but a few common practices include:

• Articulation Therapy: Focusing on producing certain sounds the child struggles with by doing different engaging activities, games, books, and flash cards. The level of these activities will be tailored to the child’s age and capabilities.
• Oral Exercises: Working to strengthen a child’s jaw muscles when tone and strength are limiting factors. These exercises will typically involve practicing different oral movements like chewing, tongue rolling, and opening and closing the mouth. This practice is common for children with cerebral palsy symptoms like dysarthria.
• Swallowing Exercises: Focusing specifically on developing a child’s oral awareness as they eat, chew, and swallow. This practice is common for children with cerebral palsy symptoms like dysphagia.

Some children with more severe limitations may not find success through these methods. In these cases, the SLP may recommend using augmentative and alternative communication devices to help facilitate communication.

These tools, such as manual and electronic communication boards or voice output communication aids (VOCA), can be incredibly helpful for children who are unable to clearly express their needs at a given time.

While the use of these alternative communication devices may not be permanent, they can be helpful aids for the child while they practice strengthening their oral motor skills in speech therapy.

Birth injuries, and more specifically birth-related head injuries, can cause harm to the parts of the brain responsible for speech and language development.

Birth asphyxia occurs when a baby’s access to oxygen is completely cutoff either during pregnancy or during delivery. Prolonged periods without oxygen cause critical neurons in the brain to die off, which can result in hypoxic brain injuries like HIE and lead to speech impairment.

Periventricular leukomalacia (or PVL) is another type of brain damage at birth that occurs when blood flow is restricted (a complication called ischemia) from reaching the white matter surrounding the brain’s ventricles (structures that hold and produce cerebrospinal fluid). Like HIE, PVL can also lead to speech and language issues later during childhood.

Outside of hypoxic and ischemic causes, a child can undergo birth trauma during labor and delivery that results in a brain injury. This can sometimes arise from medical mistakes, such as using excessive force when assisting a mother’s delivery with tools like forceps and vacuum extractors.

Birth trauma can result in several injuries to the baby’s brain, such as an intracranial hemorrhage (brain bleed) or cephalohematoma (buildup of blood underneath the baby’s scalp).

In rare cases, untreated neonatal infections can spread to the brain and damage critical structures within it. This can happen when an infection develops into neonatal sepsis and causes encephalitis, which is inflammation of the brain tissue.

The majority of these birth injuries are preventable with proper monitoring and quick intervention. If the negligence of an OB-GYN, nurse, midwife, or any other involved medical professional causes a brain injury for the baby that results in delayed speech and language communication, it can count toward a medical malpractice claim.

A child diagnosed with a brain injury at birth will likely face more than one physical challenge or disability throughout their life. Speech and language impairments are common obstacles that many survivors of birth injuries have to endure and overcome during early childhood. Parents deserve to know whether these birth injuries that caused communication impairments were preventable.

Birth injury negligence, such as failing to properly monitor fetal heart rates or unintentionally causing a traumatic birth injury by using excessive force, can all play a role in a child’s brain injury that leads to these communication struggles. Negligence can also occur after birth, with healthcare providers missing the signs of speech complications or failing to refer a family to a specialist.

If a family believes that any of these mistakes contributed to their child’s delayed developmental milestones, legal support may be an option. A attorney specializing in birth injuries can review the medical records and circumstances to assess whether a viable claim for medical malpractice exists.

Parents whose children suffer from the long-term effects of birth complications, especially brain damage and the complications that follow it, deserve to know whether it could have been prevented. Our dedicated birth injury lawyers want to help you find those answers and obtain the funds necessary to improve the quality of life for your child.

Sometimes families are hesitant to reach out to a medical malpractice attorney or law firm. They may feel overwhelmed by their circumstances or are worried that a law firm will not be able to help them. But the only way to find out if you have a case is to talk to an attorney who understands how birth injuries can lead to developmental delays and other birth complications that require long-lasting medical support.

A statute of limitations is a law that imposes a deadline for filing birth injury lawsuits. If you fail to file a claim before the statute of limitations "runs out", you may lose your right to pursue legal action and seek compensation. In some cases where an injury may not be immediately apparent, the statute of limitations may be extended.

The discovery rule prevents the statute of limitations from running until the injury is discovered or reasonably should have been discovered. It is also important to remember that the statute of limitations varies by state and the type of claim you're filing. A birth injury attorney can help you avoid missing all crucial deadlines related to your case.

It takes a detailed expert review of the facts and circumstances of your pregnancy and your child's birth before determining whether their speech delay or language disorder was the result of a preventable birth injury.

Our Process

At Miller Weisbrod Olesky, a team of committed attorneys, nurses and paraprofessionals uses our detailed medical negligence case review process to assess your potential birth injury case. We start by learning more about you and your child and the status of meeting/missing developmental milestones. Then we gather medical records to determine what happened before, during, and after your delivery.

We call in skilled medical experts who review your records and let us know if they think medical errors could have caused your child's injuries. If we believe medical negligence was a legitimate contributing factor to your child’s conditions and disabilities, we will meet with you to discuss how you can receive compensation from the medical professionals who made the errors.

At no point in our legal intake process will we ask you to pay anything. The medical review of your case and the consultation are free. We only receive payment once you do. The sooner you reach out to us, the sooner we can begin investigating your case and gathering the evidence needed to support your claim.

We work on a contingency fee basis, meaning you won't pay any legal fees unless we win your case. Contact us today to schedule your free legal consultation by calling our toll-free line at (888) 987-0005 or by filling out our online request form.