Similar studies suggest that children with speech delays are more likely to have a difficult time communicating and bonding with peers, which could have negative effects on their psychosocial health later in life. Causes
At times, speech delay and impairment is caused by a physical disruption in the mouth such as a deformed frenulum, lips, or palate. If the motion or ability to form words and appropriate sounds is disrupted, the child may be slow to pick up words and lack the ability to shape their mouth and tongue in the formation of words.Other more serious concerns are those that can be caused by oral-motor issues. Oral-motor dysfunction refers to a lack or delay in the area of the brain that speech is formed and created and communicated to the mouth and tongue. While speech may be the only concern, this disorder can be highlighted with feeding issues as well.Children that are having speech delay disorders could have the following characteristics (Shriberg 1982): 

Speech mechanism in which speech is associated with hearing, motor speech and craniofacial malfunction
Cognitive-linguistic aspects in which the impairment is associated with the childs intellectual, receptive, expressive and linguistic ability. Psychosocial issues in which the impairment is associated with caregiver, school environment, and the childs self behaviors such as aggression and maturityThe many other causes of speech delay include bilingual children with phonological disorders, autism spectrum conditions, childhood apraxia, auditory processing disorder, prematurity, cognitive impairment and hearing loss.
Speech delay, also known as alalia, refers to a delay in the development or use of the mechanisms that produce speech. Speech – as distinct from language – is the actual process of making sounds, using such organs and structures as the lungs, vocal cords, mouth, tongue, teeth, etc. Language delay refers to a delay in the development or use of the knowledge of language. Because language and speech are two independent stages, they may be individually delayed. For example, a child may be delayed in speech (i.e., unable to produce intelligible speech sounds), but not delayed in language. In this case, the child would be attempting to produce an age appropriate amount of language, but that language would be difficult or impossible to understand. Conversely, since a child with a language delay typically has not yet had the opportunity to produce speech sounds, it is likely to have a delay in speech as well.