Speech/langauge development in children - questions/advice

Hi Partha,

As a general thumb rule there are so many number of words a child 'should' speak at every stage. The doctors would check at the routine check-up visits. If in doubt, I would strongly recommend that your sister consults the child's doctor. Remedy that one can do at home is to talk precisely to the child and encourage him to answer them back. But for a child with speech delay more such exercises via a speech therapist might be required.

 

HI partha,
Am a Speech-Language Pathologist and stepping in here to answer your concern. I did really like to suggest them to visit an expert soon. You should start now so as not to be loosing any more time.

The first 5yrs of a child's life is considered Golden period to be learning all essential skills and any kind of therapy initiated in this period will work wonders and help the child get to normal stream. So please don't hesitate to get him checked. For all you know the therapist may say that the child is normal and will learn on his own and that'll still make you feel good and no more worries about the child. So do consider seeing a specialist and not just a Pediatrician, they may say its ok, he'll learn and we might just loose time waiting.

Till then I can help in with some suggestions, but before i start, i need a little more information from you.

1. Being born premature is not in itself any high risk for Speech and Language delay. Many premature babies grow as full-term babies. What's of concern to me is- How is his hearing? Have you got it checked?

2. Could you send me a list of words he says and also check if he is hearing you when you talk or is it just a common/casual reaction to how you talk/ your facial expressions.

3. How are his eating habits?- Is he chewing or still preferring soft food?

4. Try and also answer this questionnaire and I can help by suggesting exercises, if you could write these answers to me.

Speech and Language Development Milestones -- How Do I Know If My Child Is Reaching the Milestones? [NIDCD Health Information]

Do let me know if I could be of any help. Good Luck

 

Hi Partha,
You don't need to thank me dear, am just trying to help.

By 3yrs, children are expected to make 3word combination like "Mamma give milk". They need be grammatically correct but at least 3 or words in a sentence or phrase. The communication during the younger days is more need based and slowly as the child grows will include self-expressions, opinions, disagreement and also descriptions.

Its indeed a matter to seek help as i see him talking very less for his age.
So please look out for a Speech Pathologist in your area, make an appointment and visit them ASAP. Please do not shy away from visiting, its really very important for the child to pick up speech now, else he may be left behind in his school. And also, when i say "talk more" to the child, i cannot show you how to do that, so a therapist can demonstrate these activities better and seeing an expert do, will help you learn the right technique for use with the child. And also, there are a lot more factors influencing the child's speech and language development which an expert can access better. I may not be able to ask you detailed question on this forum and hence may be missing out on vital aspects. Am just suggesting a few activities for start and not to be loosing time, you should meet the expert at the earliest.

Now how you could start helping the child is:
Am basing this on the information you have given me.
I would suggest- give instructions in your mother tongue and of course you could use relevant words in English (when needed) so that his vocabulary is expanding too.
(Do let me know what are the languages the child is exposed to and I will try give in appropriate examples).

1. Talk to him lots. This means, not just question and answer sessions like:
"what is this" and even before the child answers "this is a ball"
Lets move ahead and talk interesting hings to the child. Talk a lot about things he is seeing, touching, eating, holding and stuff like that.
And when i say talk a lot, it goes like this.
Say the situation is : The child is playing with a red colored toy car.
So the parent or anybody around starts talking to the child.
"Oh, you are playing with a car....its a nice car....it has 4 wheels, wheels go round and round............it has 2lights, lights go flash flash, and lets see whose driving the car? Appa......No...(child's name) is driving the car.....he is driving it so fast......." and so on. Be sure to give enough time/ pauses in your speech, so that the child is following you, picking up the words you use and registering it within him.

2. Your speech towards the child has to be attractive, use simplified words with animated tones like "Ohh..", "No-No" (instead of a just "no"), exaggerate your answers to his questions. Sing along rhymes (in your mother tongue too) and act them out with the child, so that he is understanding the rhymes. Children's rhymes have lots of new and easy words for them to learn and use.

3. Make it a routine activity to sit with him and talk to him. Yes, switch off the TV, phone and all distractions. Sit with the child, allow him to play around, while you do the commentary part of it. Even if you feel the child is not paying attestation, continue to do it everyday and slowly the child will be wanting to listen to you talk and describe things and will also be learning more words.

4. This is very important- teaching the child to talk is not just teaching him words like colors, numbers and alphabets. Please focus on communication. teach him to talk when giving him a bath/ feeding him/ going out with him/ dressing him- teach him words in a context and not out of the blue.

So your commentary starts once the child is up in the morning (in your mother tongue)- Oh my sweety, good morning.....did you sleep well? lets' go the toilet and brush brush brush/ wash wash wash....talk like you would sing. ........is somebody hungry.....what has Amma made today.....umm.....yummy upma......who like the carrots/tomatoes in the Upma....and then.....what color dress shall we wear.......(please wait for any kind of reaction from the child) you may answer these questions yourselves, but still wait for his reaction and then continue.

Like this you will get a lot of opportunities to talk to the child. make sure you take the lead from the child and then continue. Let me know if you have already tried it or if you are able to follow me, i could add some more examples in your mother tongue and write down activities for you.

I don't want to sound too technical- but please let me know if you don't understand my way of writing, i can make it simple for you.

Good Luck :thumbsup

 

Dear SLV,

I just wanted to drop a note to let you know that I'm really touched by your sincere and genuine response! You are doing a great help by offering such detailed and to the point information and advice.

You sound like a wonderful person! Keep it up!

Dear OP,
Sorry for this tangent.. but I couldn't stop myself from writing here.

 

Hey,

I agree! SLV - kudos to you!
Partha - Speech therapist, speech therapist, speech therapist! That is the order of the day it seems. So many in Chennai now. Don't waste any time. Hurry your sister. Good luck.

 

infinitehopes and DNM- Thank you for your appreciation.

If my knowledge and education could be of any help to anybody....am always ready to share. Am not sure if I could make all the difference needed but yes i definitely want to try and help. Anything....absolutely anything when it concerns CHILDREN.

Waiting to hear from Partha as to how they plan to take it ahead.

 

dear madam
how much time speech therapy is needed for a kid?

 

I just came across this thread.thanks SLV. really it is more useful information for all moms..