by Katie Madigan
As a Speech-Language Pathologist I am often solicited for advice from other moms and dads in my circle of friends regarding their child’s speech-language development. “Should I worry if my 3-year-old seems to be stuttering?” “What do I do about a lisp?” “My 2-year-old is not yet using complete sentences, what should I do?” “Help, I can’t understand anything my kid says!” While I can’t treat all of their children, especially from hundreds of miles away, I can offer some advice and tips on when to be concerned and when to chalk it up to late development.
The month of May has been designated as Better Hearing and Speech Month by the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA), the national certification organization for Speech-Language Pathologists, Audiologists, and Speech Language Hearing Scientists. The purpose of this monthlong celebration is to provide parents with information about communication disorders to help ensure that they do not seriously affect their children’s ability to learn, socialize with others, and be successful in school.
Speech and Language problems can occur at any time in a person’s life due to injury, illness, or inherited by birth. Frequently in the schools Speech-Language Pathologists are seen as the “speech teacher” who works on sound errors only, but speech and language difficulties are much more complex than just the articulation of sounds. Common speech-language errors that affect children include:
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Stuttering which includes atypical disfluencies of speech like repeating a word or part of a word three or more times.
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Articulation/phonology problems such as “poon” for spoon or “wabbit” for rabbit.
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Language Disorders such as the slow development of vocabulary, concepts, and grammar.
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Voice Disorders such as nasal, breathy, or hoarse voice.
Speech-Language Pathologists also help to treat children with pragmatic (social) language difficulties, hearing impairments, and those who use alternative methods of communication (alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) devices, sign language, picture cards).
Knowing the typical developmental process of speech and language skills is integral in determining whether or not your child has a speech-language disorder. There are language patterns that develop over time (for example, sentence length and pronoun use) as well as sound errors (/w/ for /r/ and /f/ for /th/) that may disappear with age and maturity. In general, some red flags to look in communication development might include:
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at 12 months the child does not point to objects; does not use gestures
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at 15 months has not used first word; does not respond to “no” and “bye-bye”
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at 18 months does not use 6-10 words consistently; does not hear/discriminate between sounds
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at 24 months has a vocabulary of less than 50 words
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at 36 months strangers have difficulty understanding what the child is saying; the child does not use simple sentences
Here are some excellent resources to learn more about speech-language development and disorders:
http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/
http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/
http://www.stutteringhelp.org/
http://www.autism-society.org/
Resources in the Champaign-Urbana area include:
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Your local school district if your child is ages 3-21. All school districts are required by law to provide or direct you to someone who can provide services for your child if they meet eligibility criteria.
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Early Intervention if your child is ages birth to age 3. In this area you can call Child & Family Connections 16 at (800) 877-1152.
Katie Madigan is a Speech-Language Pathologist, aspiring educational leader, and community volunteer. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Junior League of Champaign-Urbana and loves this community she has adopted as her own. She shares her dream home in Urbana with her husband Jared, daughter Madeline, and dogs Scooter and Max.