Can ADHD Cause Speech Delays In Kids?
If your child has ADHD (Attention Defecit disorder with hyperactivity) and you have noticed that they sometimes struggle to find the right words, follow directions, tell a story, or keep up with conversations, you may wonder if ADHD is causing a speech or language delay.
The short answer is that ADHD does not directly cause a speech or language disorder, but children with ADHD can experience communication difficulties with speech and language development. ADHD and speech or language disorders can also occur at the same time, which can make it hard to tell exactly what is behind a child’s communication challenges, and understanding the difference can help parents know when it may be time to seek support from a speech-language pathologist.
ADHD and Speech Delays: Is There a Connection?
ADHD affects many skills that are all connected to communication, like attention, impulse control, activity level, and executive functioning. For example, a child with ADHD may have a hard time staying focused when someone is speaking, and they may interrupt regularly, jump between topics, or give an answer without first putting some thought into it.
These behaviors can sometimes look like a language problem, even when they are not. At the same time, ADHD and various language disorders can occur together. For example, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) estimates that ADHD and Development Language Disorder (DLD) co-occur in about 22.35% of children in the United States.
What Communication Difficulties Can Look Like
Every child is different, but children with ADHD may struggle with some or multiple of the following aspects of communication:
- Staying focused during conversations
- Taking turns in conversations
- Listening to and following directions with multiple steps
- Organizing their thoughts before speaking
- Telling a story in the correct order/sequence
- Finding the right words
- Remembering information that was told to them
- Understanding or using social communication skills
- Staying on topic
- Explaining their thoughts clearly
Some of the difficulties are related to attention and executive functioning rather than a true speech or language delay. For instance, a child may know how to follow a three-step direction but forget the first step because they became distracted. Another child may have the vocabulary needed to tell a story but struggle to organize their thoughts in a clear and understandable order. These are some of the many reasons why a speech evaluation is recommended. The first call with Great Speech is free and just a click away - Book an Appointment.
ADHD vs Speech or Language Disorder
It is important to differentiate speech from language. Speech is how we produce sounds and words, and a child with a speech sound disorder may have trouble producing certain letter sounds; language is a lot more, as it includes understanding what others say as well as expressing our thoughts through words and sentences.
A child can have ADHD without having a speech or language disorder, and a child can have ADHD and have a co-occurring language disorder. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), approximately 1 in 14 children in the U.S. ages 3-17 has had a disorder related to voice, speech, or language in the past 12 months. According to the CDC, an estimated 7 million (11.7%) U.S. children aged 3–17 years have a current ADHD diagnosis, according to data collected in 2024.
The difference between ADHD and a speech or language disorder can sometimes be hard to see because some behaviors can look similar. For example, a child with ADHD may seem as though they are not listening when they are actually having difficulty maintaining their attention. They may also lose track of a conversation, interrupt, or have problems explaining their thoughts because they are struggling with impulse control or organizing their thoughts.
However, if a child consistently has difficulty understanding language, finding the right words, forming sentences, producing certain speech sounds, or communicating their ideas clearly (even when they are focused and engaged), it may point to an underlying speech or language disorder rather than just ADHD alone.
Attention and Executive Functioning Skills are Needed for Communication
Children need to pay attention, hold information in their memory, organize their thoughts, shift between ideas, monitor what they are saying, and consider what their listener knows to communicate well, and these skills fall partly under the umbrella of what's known as executive functioning.
ASHA notes that executive functioning includes skills such as keeping and shifting attention, organization, inhibition, goal setting, as well as planning, and these abilities can affect how successfully a person communicates and participates in everyday activities.
Research also continues to explore the relationship between ADHD symptoms and language abilities. A 2024 study found associations between inattention and several language-related abilities (including receptive vocabulary, sentence recall, narrative skills, and pragmatic language in some children).
The takeaway is not that ADHD causes a language disorder; however, attention, executive functioning, and language are interconnected, and difficulties in one area can also affect how a child performs in another.
When Should You Look Into Speech Therapy For Your Child With ADHD
If your child has ADHD and also regularly struggles with their communication. It is worth looking beyond the ADHD diagnosis. Difficulty being understood, following directions, finding words, forming sentences, telling stories, staying on topic, or participating in conversations can let you know that additional support could be helpful. A speech therapist can evaluate your child’s communication skills and help determine whether their challenges are related primarily to speech, language, social communication, attention, or a combination of these factors.
While ADHD does not necessarily cause speech delays, children with ADHD can also have problems communicating. Looking at the whole child rather than linking every single challenge to ADHD can help families get the right help for their child.
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