When is Speech Therapist needed?

When is Speech Therapy needed?

You need to see a speech therapist Speech helps in verbal expression and forming sounds and words. While language involves the broader process of understanding other people and being understood through verbal and non-verbal communication.

A growing toddler with a speech issue might have difficulty saying certain sounds and pronouncing words.

While a kid with a language problem could pronounce everything correctly but have trouble forming sentences to express ideas.

Parents need to educate themselves about both speech and language development and keep an eye on signs of an issue, particularly during their child’s first few years.

Here are certain things to watch out for while your child is growing and might be having trouble with speech or language acquisition:

1. Babbling not achieved: If a baby (4-7 months) seems strangely quiet and isn’t vocalizing with sounds through babbling. The child could be showing signs of a language disorder, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
2. Unable to use gestures: If your child doesn’t express himself/herself by making gestures such as pointing and waving or hardly making any gestures at the age of 7-12 months. It could be another indication of a possible language disorder.
3. Doesn’t understand verbal requests: Children between 12 and 24 months old should be able to comprehend simple spoken requests. The child could have a language development issue if he/she doesn’t seem to understand your instructions.
4. Framing sentences: Between the ages of 1.5 to 2 years, kids should start putting words together to form sentences. If your toddler is struggling to make sentences, that might be a good reason to get them screened for a language disorder.
5. Face’s difficulty in producing certain sounds: Kids with speech sound disorders might have issues producing p, b, m, h, and w sounds in words. The majority of the kids from 1 to 2 years of age faces trouble in pronouncing k, g, f, t, d, and n sounds, according to ASHA.

If a kid shows any of these signs related to speech and language issues, it’s best to seek help as soon as possible.

Our speech therapist can help children of all ages with various speech and language disorders including fluency, articulation, communication, and language disorders.

In the first year itself, children learn to crawl, walk, talk, and socialize with others.

Most motor skills are achieved in the early years like crawling between 6 and 10 months, and the vast majority learn walking by 15 months.

The same milestones exist for speech.

The child must say his/her first word by 1 year of age, and they should know about 20 words by 18 months.

If the child is behind these targets, don’t worry.

A speech therapist can help to overcome these issues.

When do you need to see a speech and language therapist?

Every child learns at their own pace but few observations in the day to day life can help you known if the speech and language development is happening appropriately:

The things are alarming if your child is showing any of these signs:

12-15 months:

• Only makes a few sounds.
• Not using gestures.
• Still not spoken his/her first words.

18-24 months:

• Points to an object instead of using simple sentences.
• Not using two-word combinations frequently.
• Leaving the final sound of words like “ba” instead of a bat.

2-4 years:

• Unable to speak in phrases.
• Saying fewer than 50 words.
• Mostly unintelligible speech.

4-5 years:

• Repeating sounds of words, like “c-c-c-cat” for “cat”.
• Unable to follow commands in the classroom.
• Repeats sounds or words most of the time.

Happy learning!

Feel free to contact us if you are still facing challenges in understanding your kid’s speech and language difficulties.

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