September 2, 2014

You may have been wondering about your child. While every child develops differently and at his or her own pace, it may be concerning you that your child seems behind other children the same age. Is it a problem that requires speech or language therapy?

The best advice I could give you is DON’T WAIT to see if your child will outgrow the problem or catch up. See a speech-language pathologist right away. If your child is following typical development, you will be happy to know you have nothing to worry about. If it turns out that your child needs intervention, the earlier the better! The most effective intervention is early intervention. Learning communication skills is a cumulative process, so getting help early on will improve chances for your child to catch up! There is a lot at stake because ANY speech or language delay /disorder may have a significant impact on his or her social, emotional and academic skills.

Communication is complex, consisting of many different skills that start to develop in infancy. In fact, the first three years of life are the most crucial for developing a good foundation for learning. Amazingly, children typically accomplish communication milestones at about the same age, such as first words by age 12 months, combining 2 words together by 2 years, using pronouns by age 3 to 4 years, telling short stories by age 4 to 5 years, and adult sounding speech by age 6 or 7. For more information on developmental milestones and early detection of communication disorders, please refer to www.asha.org, sac-oac.ca as well as www.IdentifyTheSigns.org.

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Thank you for reading!

Cindy McCallum, M.S., CCC-SLP, SLP(C)

Speech-Language Pathologist

Founder, WiseOwlSpeech