Hi there! I am actually not a good
writer, but I love reading with some helpful information and books especially if its really help to my confusions and questions towards to the different situations.
Being a beginner blogger, I hope everything goes fine and it will become my regular hobby. With this site, I want to share some of my experiences of being a wife, career woman and a mother. I am a seaman's wife and has something to share to other readers.
In this post, I want to share about "Speech Delay". I had experienced this to my older son when he was 1 year and 10 months old. Being a mother to the first angel of the family, I want everything goes fine especially to my child. As I noticed to my son at the his age turning to 2 years old he cannot speak even a single word clearly. By that time, I started panic and looked for and expert to help us. When I consulted this to his pediatrician, immediately she referred to us to a pediatrician for speech development. By then, I also started search about speech delay to seek guidance that everything may goes fine. I was terribly worried for my son's condition, that's why I easily jumped to different opinions, and until I was comforted with the result of the sessions and evaluation that he is normal and very capable to talk, only he lacks of exposures and association with other children. And now, he does well, eloquent to pronounce words and can elaborate things properly with complete descriptions. With his improvement, I am very happy and proud mom of my son's progress.
What is a "Speech Delay"? According to the information I got from the internet, most children with speech delays have a developmental language
disorders (DLD), with an expressive delay, and will meet normal age
appropriate visual language skills (recognizing parents, recognizing objects,
responding to facial expressions, following commands that are accompanied with
a gesture indicating what you want done, pointing to desired objects, etc.),
and will seem to have normal comprehension or understanding of other's speech,
meeting normal age appropriate auditory receptive skills (recognizing and
turning toward sounds, following 1 or 2 step commands without a gesture,
pointing to named body parts and objects), although some can also have a mild
or variable receptive delay. With early intervention (speech therapy), most of
these children will have improved speech by the time they begin school and
their speech will ultimately become normal.
Some children with an expressive delay are just 'late talkers' and have
a constitutional delay in their speech development. These children
will develop normal speech and language skills as they get older without any
treatment. Unfortunately, there is no way to differentiate children with a
constitutional delay, who will have improvement of their speech without
intervention from those children who will require treatment. You can only tell
in hindsight and it is not advisable to just 'wait and see' if your child's
speech will improve.
Another important cause of speech delay are hearing problems,
and so all children suspected of having a speech or language
delays should have their hearing formally tested. It is not enough that they think
that he hears because he responds to a loud clap or bell in the doctor's office
or because he comes when you call him from another room.
Other causes of speech delays include mental deficiency or mental
retardation and pervasive developmental disorders, including autism.
In addition to expressive and receptive delays, children with these conditions
will also commonly have a delay in their visual language skills (recognizing
objects, responding to facial expressions, following commands that are accompanied
with a gesture indicating what you want done, pointing to desired objects,
etc.).
Things that don't cause speech delays are a child being 'tongue-tied,'
being 'lazy,' having a lot of siblings that 'talk for him,' or living in a
bilingual family.
Among the things that a parent can do to improve their child's speech
(in addition to regular speech therapy), include:
- Read to
your child. Especially picture books, where you can make a game of
pointing and naming familiar objects.
- Use simple
language when you talk to your child and ask him a lot of
questions. You can also be sure you are talking to your child a lot by
narrating out loud the things you are doing.
- Respond
to your child's speech to give him positive reinforcement when
he does talk.
- Repeat
and expand on what he says by turning his single
words or simple phrases into longer sentences or phrases.
- Be
patient by being forgiving of errors in his
speech and give him time to say what he wants to say. Don't rush him.
- Don't
force him to talk by withholding something he wants until
he asks for it. Instead, when he points to an object he wants, such as a
cup of juice, say 'Do you want some juice?' or 'Oh, you want the cup,'
etc. and then give it to him. Forcing him to talk, or constantly reminding
him to 'use your words' can lead to increased stress and frustration.
