Language disorder in a child with early left thalamic lesion

In this paper we present the case of a child with early left thalamic vascular damage who subsequently developed a language disorder. At 3 years and 8 months, her language was poor and unintelligible and showed phonetic, phonological and morpho-syntactic disorders. She did not exhibit any signs of mental retardation. After specific speech therapy, she improved in all linguistic skills. Given the lack of reports on thalamic lesions in children, this paper describes the effect of a thalamic injury in the earliest phases of language acquisition in a child who showed consistent phonological disorders. This case seems to confirm early hemispheric specialisation and the importance of a timely therapy.