Guidelines for child health: language development on focus

Abstract Language disorders impact on child overall development. Policy directives for the child guide on ways to follow up child development for greater efficiency and effectiveness. The aim of this paper was to identify the policies positions of the proposals on the attention to language problems in the child health field. From a documental research, national and international guidelines were reviewed in order to identify actors, objectives, contexts, motivations, arguments, justifications and proposals regarding the follow of child development and child language. We performed a critical analysis in order to explain these positions and place on discussion the arguments that support them. The results point out to consensual aspects that place the problems of child development as vulnerabilities producers. Language problems cross the boundaries of political, scientific and social matters. These issues are challenges to interdisciplinary and intersectoral work and guide the need to promote the most effective responses of public policy for people requiring language support. The link of this discussion with the concepts of life cycle and human development for achieving full citizenship requires further deepening.