Delayed Speech and Language

Speech and language is an essential part of any child’s development. Language development impacts your child’s social interactions, behavior and academic skills.If your child is not talking as much as most of the other children of his age are, she could be having a delay. You could consult us for this and We shall be assessing the following and then recommending if speech language therapy is required or not

• what your child understands (called receptive language)
• what your child can say (called expressive language)
• if your child is attempting to communicate in other ways, such as pointing, head shaking, gesturing, etc.
• sound development and clarity of speech
• your child's oral-motor status (how the mouth, tongue, palate, etc., work together for speech as well as eating)

How can you support your child’s speech and language development?

• Start talking to your child at birth. Even newborns benefit from hearing speech.
• Talk to your child a lot. Tell them what you are doing as you do it.
• Read books aloud. If your baby loses interest in the text, just talk about the pictures.
• Sing to your child and provide them with music. Learning new songs helps your child learn new words, and uses memory skills, listening skills, and expression of ideas with words.
• Don’t try to force your child to speak.
• Expand on what your child says. (For example, if your child says, “water,” you can say, “You want water!”)
• Describe for your child what they are doing, feeling and hearing in the course of the day.
• Encourage storytelling and sharing information.
• Play with your child one-on-one, and talk about the toys and games you are playing.
• Ask your child lots of questions.
• Don’t criticize grammar mistakes. Instead, just model good grammar.
• Have your child play with kids whose language is a little better than theirs.