Speech/langauge development in children - questions/advice

SLV · Jan 25, 2011

anukv said: ↑

even i have my brother's son with same problem...they started a therapy class for him
he is much better now
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That's a motivation for many parents here.
Thanks for your reply Anukv.

SLV · Jan 25, 2011

dheepu81 said: ↑

hi

I'm a Speech therapist myself...........i jus went through.......... the child definitely needs speech therapy..........btw does the child go to play
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Thanks Deepa for having an Equivocal opinion.

Good to know you here. Please do hang around to answer queries in this thread.
See you around. :thumbsup

priya78 · Jan 25, 2011

Dear SLV
Thank you sooo much.I always try to be calm and happy in front of kids but sometimes I feel very depresive hereafter I will develope positive attitude in their devepment

1. Answering in 1 or 2words- Could you explain this with examples for me please??
sometimes I feel that he understands only part of my question
for eg if i ask him are you hungry do u want to have mammu he will yes mammu if he is hungry and no mammu if he is not but after lunch if I ask him what did you eat for lunch he thinks thats I am asking him to eat again he immediately says no mammu.
one more eg after coming from school I will ask what did you do today at school immediately he will say no school or sometimes yes school which clearly indicates that he dont understand my question fully

2 As Vanitha had asked another parent, does you child make 'Role Play'?? Does he play as Dad/Mom or say as Police/Doctor/Teacher? How elaborate are his imaginative skills then?
No he dont make role play assuming him as mom ir dad but I have seen him twice playing as a doctor but just 2 times he will always play with two cars he will make one car hit another one and shout damma (which means the car fell down broken) but he loves to draw and draws very well once he has drawn 2 big circles and 2 small circles with all facil features and has drawn stick like hands holding to each other and he said its mommy , daddy , Akhil(my elderson) and the last one is shamu(he himself) and he had drawn one picture its a picture of dinosaurs the face came out verywell but the body is like stick figure actually in his school they took a copy of that sent to headoffice

3 How is his communication with his brother and peers? Does he initiate communication?
Basically he is very shy type he moves well with my elder one but that freely with other kids even they are close relatives.he always call out for his brother and will say lets play ball and my elderone understands what he says than me.but he don't want to play even with his peers

4. Can he tell you a short story about what happened in school/ at playground or communicate if he had a fall and how it happened? How elaborate is his communication then.
No whenever I ask him what happened in school he literally blabbers and he is not able to understand what I am asking I will ask him 3-4 times he will say car go daddy someother thing but when he got hurt are something he will be the firstone to complaint amma damma( fell down) or he will say uv va or hurt some times he will ask me are you ok?which means he got hurt

5 Is he going to Kindergarten/play group- how are his activities and social skills there?
He is going to Nursery when ever I find time I will speak to his teacher she says that he is fine he is able to recongnise all vechiles , colours , parts of the body , shapes and know no from 1-50 can write up to 5 and knows alphabets both lower and upper case and can write few alphabets too and he loves to read books which means we should read and explain and he will listen and he clean toys after playing onlything lagging is he is not mixing with other kids and he is not playing very well at park he just wants to sit and stare or sot play not very active like running or sliding even if I taking him to park he always want to play in swing thats all.
he is not completely potty trained he use the restroom only for pepe for poopoo he asks for diaper I make him sit in bath for half an hr in morning half an hour evening could see slight improvement thats all but school he is not telling them that he wants to go bathroom he just goes bathroom in his pant for his age he must tell the teachers that he wants to go to bathroom and onemorething in the school they always ask what mother touge u speak at home in whatever language we ask he is not answering sometimes in pains me a lot

Regarding the link you have sent
For Listening

Follow 1-2 simple directions in a sequence
yes he is able follow instructions like swich of the fan and swich on the tv

Listen to and understand age-appropriate stories read aloud
yes

Follow a simple conversation
sometimes he understand but not always

SPEAKING

Be understood by most people
NO
Answer simple "yes/no" questions
YES
Answer open-ended questions (e.g.,
"What did you have for lunch today?")
NO
Retell a story or talk about an event
NO
Participate appropriately in conversations
NO
Show interest in and start conversations
NO

READING
Reading

Know how a book works (e.g., read from left to right and top to bottom in English)
YES
Understand that spoken words are made up of sounds
YES
Identify words that rhyme (e.g., cat and hat)
YES
Compare and match words based on their sounds
NO
Understand that letters represent speech sounds and match sounds to letters
NO
Identify upper- and lowercase letters
YES
Recognize some words by sight
NO
"Read" a few picture books from memory
YES
Imitate reading by talking about pictures in a book
YES

WRITING
Print own first and last name
NO
Draw a picture that tells a story and label and write about the picture
NO

Write upper- and lowercase letters (may not be clearly written)
YES

Dear SLV I tried answer all the question please guide me and sorry for very very long posts

Vishalini3 · Jan 25, 2011

SLV said: ↑

By 18months- about 20words (need based)
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Thanks SLV, my 16.5months old speaks only 3-4words, amma, aammaam (meaning YES), mum mum (food), ennnna (what). Otherwise i have heard him say, BYE once. Should i be worried? Any pointers? He seems to understand instructions - give XX to appa, see if the dog is at the door, keep YY in the kitchen. But he wont talk, even if we ask him to try a word repeatedly. Sometimes i see him trying hardddddd to talk a word, that comes out as iiiiyaaaaa, innnaaaaa, aathaaaa and he gets frustrated.

Sarasan · Jan 25, 2011

Vishalini3 said: ↑

Thanks SLV, my 16.5months old speaks only 3-4words, amma, aammaam (meaning YES), mum mum (food), ennnna (what). Otherwise i have heard him say, BYE once. Should i be worried? Any pointers? He seems to understand instructions - give XX to appa, see if the dog is at the door, keep YY in the kitchen. But he wont talk, even if we ask him to try a word repeatedly. Sometimes i see him trying hardddddd to talk a word, that comes out as iiiiyaaaaa, innnaaaaa, aathaaaa and he gets frustrated.
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Hi Vishalini ,
even my 17 Months old behaves the same , i do worry abt her sometimes, but when she responds for all wat i ask her, i feel better, i don't know whether i need to worry abt this or not! Even u don't worry dear!
lets get the help from SLV, Thank you SLV for such a helpful guidance ........ u r doing a great service in developing a good generation

Thanks a lot again, let me detail my queries in a separate post

Sarasan · Jan 25, 2011

Hi SLV,

My DD is 17 months and 4 weeks old
1.If i cal her by her name she turns,(In the last 2 days, few times she even reacts with some sound )
2.If i say 'A' --> she will continue saying bbbbbbbbbb, she never repeats wat i say ( except E)
3.If i say banana she tries a lot and says anana
4.She calls me Amma,
5.If i ask her to give X to her appa she will give but if i ask her to call my DH as appa she says AMMA with smile( which indicates that she knows, but she wont)
6.The words she knows are 1.Amma,2.Ball 3.Puppy ( she also say bow bwo for puppy) 4.Bella - for balloon 5. Chiti -- my sis 6. Hi( Haaaaaaaaai like this) 7. aa - for food 8. cofka for coffee
7.Other than this she communicate with us by signs (eg:to go out, to get a toy ) Wen i see her doing all these i feel happy, but wen ever i happen to meet similar kids who are even singing i really start worrying

Please help me out to improve her speech.........
she don't have any kids around to play with her
Ur advice will be more helpful, Thanks in Advance

sasirekamsc83 · Jan 26, 2011

Hi SLV,
Thank you very much for your reply. The details you asked about my kid are:
1) He can hear very well to my words.Whenever I ask him anything, he reacts.

2) If he needs anything like food or milk, he calls me 'ma' and shows his mouth with a finger. like this
way he communicates with me.
3) He likes cooking activities than other.He loves to watch rhymes. The only problem apart from speaking is he won't eat on time. i can feed him only when he feel hungry. Otherwise no problem with him.
Now tell me what to do?

SLV · Jan 26, 2011

Vishalini3 said: ↑

Thanks SLV, my 16.5months old speaks only 3-4words,
Click to expand...

Sarasan said: ↑

Hi SLV,
My DD is 17 months and 4 weeks old.
Please help me out to improve her speech.........
Click to expand...

sasirekamsc83 said: ↑

Hi SLV,
Thank you very much for your reply. The details you asked about my kid are:
Now tell me what to do?
Click to expand...

Hi Vishalini Sarasan and Sasireka,

Your concerns seem alike and hence i have chosen to answer them together here.

First of all i apologize if i have raised unnecessary alarms here. I did give the age statistics but did put a disclaimer saying that there are a lot of factors influencing the growth of speech and language.

Delayed Speech and Language (Will call it DSL) in itself is not too much of concern as long the development in other spheres are age appropriate.

My own niece spoke later to 20mths. She didn't have more than 3words until 20mths and all her communication was nonverbal (actions and non-verbal expressions). Her brother was a star and had achieved all milestones earlier than his peers. Now this was of a concern to family members. But then my niece had started walking by 10mths, first word was indeed before 12mths and could understand all that was spoken to her. It's just that she hadn't started speaking but her gestures and actions were very elaborate and descriptive. Now this is when you can afford to 'wait' and trust that the child will catch up.

My advise to you three would be to look at your child's overall development and let me know how much is their speech a concern for you.

If it still continues to be a concern then, do start contributing more to their learning. This is of no harm anyways, so you can talk as much as you want with your child.

Do communicate creatively with them- not just naming things in the book. As parents you need to be a step ahead of your child. If your child speaks in single words, you need to be ahead making word combination, only then does the child have a model to catch up.
Be descriptive in your narrations and yes, you need to talk till your jaws drop dead. There are a lot of opportunities in and around the house for you to narrate and describe.

Take charge and start adding a lot more words to their vocabulary. Keep a tab of new words learnt and the situations in which they are used. As you add more and more words to your child's vocabulary, it increases a child's interest in communication and the child would also want to be an active part of it and in turn try and use the words they have heard/learnt. Let's do this strictly and seriously for 3months and then take a call.

In the meanwhile if you wish to have a word with your Pediatrician please go ahead and do that too. Its of no harm keeping them in the loop.

Relax and enjoy parenthood.

SLV · Jan 26, 2011

Hi Priya,

 Thank you for all the inputs. I must say that I observe very little communication happening.
I don’t say he is not talking but then he doesn’t seem to have gone beyond the phase of expressing wants and needs.

Positives: 2-word combination, creativity (say drawing), some need based communication, basic social skills, has a minimal vocabulary, interest in reading,
Concerns: Not understanding simple questions, basic word combination, lack of imaginative and social skills, not much of peer play, inadequate toilet skills, and inadequate scholastic kills.

I can reason out a few things for you here- The reason for lack of peer play or socialization is his inadequate speech and language skills. Now younger children can relate to each other by gesturing and non-verbal expressions. But children of his age are generally verbal and hence would prefer verbal counterparts. Since your DD is not very verbal, he might have experienced failures attempting to build rapport with his peers and hence doesn’t play and socialize with them much. His elder brother having grown up with him, understands the little one better and hence the younger one prefers to always cling on to him (he feels he is being understood).

He does know a few words and expressions but then again he doesn’t seem to know how to use them for communication purposes.

As you see it all narrows down to inadequate speech and language skills. I would suggest you get proactive here and consult a speech therapist and start therapy sessions. He surely needs help.

I don’t mean to scare you- but if you did delay- it would take lot more time in the future to help him come on par with peers. The more delay would just lead to a more negative spiral for the child.

Till then from your side- please talk more to the child. It has to go beyond asking questions and expecting answers. I don’t say asking questions is wrong. But then if the child can't answer and then you don’t give an example too, then the whole act would be lost. So please fill up communication gaps for him. Even when people/children approach to talk to your child, stay around and help your child communicate.

1. Initially it might be you saying it all for him.
2. Slowly start prompting and ask him to repeat after you.
3. Ask him to guess familiar phrases and help him use them ion contexts.

I keep saying this in all my responses to parents with similar concerns, that you as a parent need to talk more so that the child has more input and examples and model. Talking more means talking creatively, descriptively and in-context. The child has to listen to speech in a meaningful environment for it to learn and use again.

I have tried my best to keep to simple. In case am not clear, do let me know and I can clarify it for you.

Good Luck!

SLV · Jan 26, 2011

sasirekamsc83 said: ↑

Hi SLV,
Thank you very much for your reply. The details you asked about my kid are:
Now tell me what to do?
Click to expand...

Glad he is hearing well. Do read my earlier reply too.

3 words does sound less for his age. I will not be worried if you say yes to the following questions of mine:

1. His other milestones were/are normal.
2. he is understanding all that is spoken to him but its just that he is not talking verbally.....does he communicate with a lot of actions and gestures??
3. Between 18mnths till now you have noted some drastic improvements in his development.

Not eating well..........may the Pediatrician here can answer that. But with my limited knowledge...some children are poor eaters. As long as they are not underweight, i think its better not to force them to eat and let them eat when they want.

Good Luck!