The primary concern when treating individual children with Down syndrome for their speech and language impairments is to identify the neuron-developmental problems and treat each problem individually. Many speech impairments can be addressed by treating the symptoms however, children who have Down syndrome must have the neurological problems addressed first. Treating the symptoms only will set the child up for problems and most likely failure.

Down syndrome children typically have problems in both speech and language. Speech is the ability to pronounce words clearly, where language is the ability to put words together and to communicate effectively. Both of these areas are problems for children with Down syndrome.