Do you ever wonder if your child’s speech skills are normal? We don’t expect a three year old to have perfect speech, but we do expect near-perfect articulation from a ten year old. Here are a few questions to help you determine whether your child is developing articulation skills at a normal pace or whether you should be concerned. These are just general guidelines. If you have concerns, you may want to have your child evaluated by a speech pathologist, who might suggest therapy or assure you that your child is developing normally.

Can your three-year-old be understood by people outside the family? Three-year-olds have usually not mastered all of the speech sounds yet, but strangers should be able to understand much of what they say. If a child has so many errors that he is difficult to understand, this probably indicates that his articulation skills are delayed and that he would benefit from speech therapy. It can be very frustrating for a child when others cannot understand his speech.

Is your five-year old easy to understand? Five-year-olds may still have 3 or 4 “tough sounds,” but these sound errors should not be interfering significantly with their intelligibility.

What do others say about your child’s speech? Often parents are so accustomed to their children’s speech patterns that they do not even notice that little Johnny says “th” instead of “s” or leaves “r” off the ends of his words. I have met ten or twelve-year olds whose parents seem not to notice that their children have difficulty with some sounds even though everyone else does notice! It is very unlikely that a child over age nine will self-correct or outgrow any articulation errors on his own.

This is a list of the approximate ages at which children should have mastered different sounds. Of course all children develop differently and may not master sounds in this exact order. There are also other factors that a speech-language-pathologist would consider in determining whether a child’s speech patterns are within normal limits or delayed. For example substituting “th” for “s” at age 6 is normal, but omitting “s” entirely or substituting “t” for “s” would be a concern (and impacts intelligibility much more). Read the rest of this entry »

Watching a toddler develop is one of the most awesome things a parent can experience. We marvel at their first steps and anticipate their first words. Most parents anxiously await the development of their child’s vocabulary not only because it is cute, but because it gives the child the ability to express their wants and needs. It’s understandably concerning when your toddler appears to have a language delay. So the questions you should ask yourself are: Is my toddler experiencing a speech delay or just moving at his own pace? And if so, how do I help my child to progress at a pace that will support the stage of learning he currently needs to meet?

Expert believe that a child develop should ideally fall into these categories

12-15 months- child can say Mama-Dada
18-24 months-child is able to point to and name a few body parts as well as name pictures of animals and other items.
16-24 months- able to combine a couple of words together to form short sentences. If a child cannot do so by at least 24 month the parent should consult the doctor for direction.
Usually a child 2 and over can say in the neighborhood of about 50 words.

If you are concerned, you should first schedule your child for a doctor’s visit to insure his hearing/vision is okay. A major oversight by many parents is that a child may be disobedient or not able to follow instruction due to rebellion or a learning disability. In some cases the child’s hearing or vision may be inadequate. It could be something such as a prolonged ear infection or various other hearing impaired issues. For this reason this is the first step to assessing possible speech delay. Read the rest of this entry »