Speech & Language Disorders & Intervention

Assess Your Child’s Speech

We cry, we talk, we listen to the world of sound and words. These acts are not as simple as they sound. A child listens a lot before he can speak well. Our ability to speak helps us to know more about the wonderful world we live in. It helps us to understand other Individuals ideas and emotions and tell them what we want to say. This difficult act cannot be mastered by many. Let us know more about speech and language problems.

Do you/your child have any of the following problems mentioned here?

• Child is 18 months old and yet does not speak or though he speaks you feel he is not talking according to children of his age.
• Does not speak clearly/cannot produce certain sounds due to which others find it difficult to understand his speech.
• Any problem with voice
  • male using feminine voice after puberty
  • hoarse voice
• Dysfluencies while speaking i.e. repeating speech sounds again and again; getting stuck on a word/fear of speaking etc.
• Difficulty in speaking/loss of speech after stroke or after major head injury.
• Behaviour problems i.e. does not attend to your commands, cannot concentrate on a task for long, talks irrelevantly and behaves differently from children of his age.

If yes,
Consult a Speech Language Pathologist

Speech & Language Disorders in Children

Delay in speech & language development

When speech and language is inappropriate for his age, use this checklist to note if there is any delay.

Checklist

By 3 months

• Makes crying and non–crying sounds.
• “Coos”, laughs

By 6 months

• Vocalises to toys.
• Repeats some vowel and consonant sounds (babbles) when alone or when spoken to.

By 9 months

• Attempts to imitate sounds.
• Interacts with others by vocalizing after adults.

By 1 year to 1½ years

• Imitates actions and words of adults.
• Responds to words or commands with appropriate actions. For example, ‘Stop that’, ‘Get down’, ‘What is that’?
• Uses few single words and gestures to ask for objects.

By 1½ to 2 years

• Uses two word sentences meaningfully.
• Recognises pictures.
• Looks at pictures with adults.

By 2 to 3 years

• Talks in sentences consisting of 3 to 5 words.
• Answers simple questions.

Causes for delay in speech and language development

The delay can be as a result of

• Hearing loss : Moderate/severe/profound hearing loss.
• Mental retardation : Mentally retarded children are slow in learning and have difficulty in learning and memory. This affects their speech and language development.
• Hyperactivity/Autism/Attention deficit : These may pose difficulty in acquiring age appropriate speech and language.
• Poor speech and Language stimulation : When parents speak to the child they facilitate speech and language development. However, lack of adequate exposure to different aspects of speech and language would interfere with speech development.
• Brain damage : Certain special centers in the brain are responsible for enabling us to speak and understand speech of others. Damage to these centers delays speech and language development.
• Difficulty in reading, writing and mathematics.

Source: Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped