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There are a number of signs to look out for of speech and language delays including:
Book a speech and language assessment for your child near you. We have a number of speech therapy clinics in Queensland across Brisbane, Gold Coast, Rockhampton, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Townsville and Telehealth.
The signs of speech or language delays to look out for in children can vary.
Speech development delays in children can include:
Sometimes it can be hard to tell if a child is taking a little bit longer to reach a speech or language milestone, or whether there are possible developmental issues. A speech language pathologist can assist by assessing your child’s speech and language skills do determine whether they are progressing in their speech milestones and language development.
Some conditions that might increase the risk of language delay in young children could include:
If you suspect your child might have speech or language problems or development delays, a speech pathologist (also known as a speech language pathologist or speech therapist) can help.
First, they will undertake a speech and language assessment which looks at your child’s development level currently, as well as your child’s communication and ability to interact with people around them. The assessments are standardised and use normative data to compare your child against typically developing children of the same age. This helps to determine whether they are tracking in normal development in relation to a child’s language development and speech development.
In addition to standardised assessments, informal observations such as play, conversation and other strategies are used to gain further insight into your child’s strengths and weaknesses.
Sometimes families will find they’re asking children questions over and over again and not getting a response. If a child is not talking, asking them lots of questions might be overwhelming and frustrating. Instead of asking a child, “What’s that? Is it a bird?”, change your comment to, “Hello bird!”. As a rule, try to follow the ratio of 70 per cent commenting/modelling to 30 per cent questioning.
Kids love to play games. Imaginative play is key for learning new skills and practising in a safe and comforting environment. Playing is vital in encouraging children to develop their language. One example is getting together a doll’s tea set, bottles and something that can be a pretend bed. Encourage the child to act out the situation through play and as they are doing this, talk to them about what they’re doing. Avoiding longer sentences and keeping sentences short, using key words will help.
Children also love to read books. Reading out loud to children is one of the greatest opportunities to expose them to lots of different sounds, language and vocabulary. This is particularly important for children who are deaf. Children learn from increased exposure and modelling of language.
Sometimes, for late talkers, alongside the later development of speech and language, comes some mistakes in their ability to pronounce certain words or phrases. They may also make some grammatical mistakes. When this happens, rather than correcting the error they have made, be supportive and encouraging of their effort to try and facilitate further attempts to speak. Make sure that you always use the right words, pronunciation and grammatical structures, so that the child is hearing correct models of language and speech.
When you are trying to help a child express themselves, it’s natural to tell them the names of things such as cat, dog or chocolate. It’s important for a child to learn the other kinds of words for the same things. For example, a dog could be referred to as a puppy or even a pooch.
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There are a number of things that could impact speech or language developments in children, including hearing loss, or ear infections such as glue ear.
Many areas of development are inter-linked with language and speech. For example, cognitive processes such as understanding concepts of ‘big’ and ‘small’, counting, learning names of shapes – these all rely on language. Similarly, social skills have a huge language and speech component – the simple routines of greeting and farewelling need language and speech to convey those social interactions. Literacy skills (such as beginning to learn to read and write) are underpinned by strong language and speech skills.
With early identification and early intervention, coupled with hearing technology and specialised speech therapy support, kids who are deaf or hard of hearing can grow up hearing and speaking just like their siblings and friends.
There are typical milestones children tend to reach as they grow up which can be used as a guide to determine if they’re showing symptoms of hearing loss. Typically, by about 12 months old, a baby will start to produce simple words and sounds of common animals, objects or vehicles.
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We acknowledge the traditional custodians of all the lands on which we meet, work and live and recognise that this land has always been and always will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land.
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