Is Your Child Struggling? Signs They May Benefit From Speech Therapy

Posted on: 17 July 2020

When you're a parent, you pay attention to their health and development. For height and weight, there are charts to follow. The charts help you and your pediatrician track your child's development. But, there aren't charts for verbal development. For that, you need to pay attention to your child's speech development, and listen to your own intuition. There are also some signs you can watch for. If you believe your child has some speech problems, check for the questions below. If you notice any problems related to those questions, talk to your pediatrician. Your child may need speech therapy. 

Did Your Baby Babble?

When it comes to identifying speech problems, sometimes you need to go back to the beginning. During infancy, babies begin to practice speech through babbling. In fact, babbling is the first form of speech babies will attempt. Your baby should have actually started to babble somewhere around 4-months of age. By around 6-months of age, your baby should have had a clear pattern of babbling. They may have even started putting sounds together to form their own language. If your baby struggled with babbling, they may benefit from speech therapy. 

Did Your Baby Gesture?

Gesturing is another form of communication babies use. Once babies develop their babbling technique, they add gestures to the sounds. These gestures can be used to communicate a variety of wants and needs. Some simple gestures include waving hello or goodbye. They may also point to things that they want. If your baby was delayed in their gesturing, they may need speech therapy. 

Can Your Child Form Letter Sounds?

As babies grow up, they learn the sounds that correspond with spoken language. This happens around the time when children start learning the alphabet. Most children pick up on letter sounds very quickly. But, some children have trouble with some of the letter sounds. If your child has had difficulty forming letter sounds, you should talk to their pediatrician. Speech therapy can help them develop the ability to form those difficult letter sounds. 

Is Your Child Easy to Understand?

Finally, it's not always easy to understand young children, especially when they're learning how to speak. But, as children get older, their speech should be more understandable. In fact, by about age two, you should be able to understand what your child is saying to you. If you struggle to understand what your child is saying, it's time to talk to their pediatrician about speech therapy.

Learn more about speech therapy from a company like Speech Language and Hearing Associates.

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