Every child develops skills at a unique pace, and speech and language skills are no exception to this. With gentle support from you as a parent or caregiver, your child can develop appropriate and expressive social skills that will aid them in a happy and healthy future where they can connect with their peers and broader society. While there are milestones agreed upon by health professionals, it doesn’t necessarily mean your child has a speech disorder if they don’t meet them on time.
Early intervention in speech therapy tends to have a great outcome and can help your child become a confident, happy individual who enjoys the company of you and their peers. Noticing that your child’s development isn’t progressing as you might have hoped can be distressing, but we’re here to reassure you that it’s often just a sign your child needs a different kind of support, not a sign that they will never develop the skills at all.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Age-related milestones can be a great indicator of whether your child needs help from a speech therapist.
- Common signs that your child will benefit from speech therapy include difficulty understanding and following instructions, having a limited vocabulary or limited expressive language, unclear speech, trouble engaging in conversations, or challenges with reading or writing.
- A positive, supportive, and patient approach can work wonders with a child who is experiencing language difficulties: both caregivers and speech pathologists can help to foster this.
Understanding Speech Development Milestones by Age
Here is an overview of what milestones you would ideally see your child achieving over their first five years of life, according to Speech Pathology Australia. While these are general and non-exhaustive and won’t apply to every child, it’s a good idea to contact your child’s healthcare provider or a speech therapist if you don’t feel they’ve been met. These professionals can complete a thorough assessment and form a clear plan to help support your child.
At 0-3 months, they can…
- Respond to sounds and voices
- Coo (make ‘ooh’, ‘ahhh’, and ‘mmm’ sounds)
- Smile
- Make eye contact
At 3-6 months, they can…
- Laugh and even blow raspberries
- Vocalise
- Start to ‘babble’ (i.e. start experimenting with different sounds and mouth movements)
At 6-12 months, they can…
- Start copying sounds that you make and even say their first words
- Recognise about 10 words, often including greetings (e.g. ‘hello’, ‘hi’, ‘bye’)
- Recognise and respond to their name
At 1-2 years, they can…
- Follow simple instructions and commands
- Grow their vocabulary, from anywhere between 50 and 100 words
- Start to ask simple questions
- Make gestures (e.g. waving for ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’)
Note: If, at around 18 months, your child hasn’t started to say single words, it’s a good idea to reach out to a health professional or speech therapist for an assessment.
At 2-3 years, they can…
- Start to form sentences with 3 (or more) words
- Increase their range of speech sounds, even if they’re still making some sound errors (e.g. /t/ instead of /k/ sounds, as in ‘tat’ instead of ‘cat’)
- Start to use words like “please” and “thank you”
- Understand and even use the past tense, as well as things like adjectives, and pronouns
Note: At 2 years old, people who are strangers to your child might be able to understand up to half of what they’re saying (you’ll likely be able to understand much, much more through familiarity).
At 3-4 years, they can…
- Understand and use some numbers and colours
- Ask basic questions and answer them
- Get the hang of conversations and waiting for their turn to speak
Note: At around 4, other people should be able to understand your child almost all of the time.
At 5+ years, they can…
- Hold longer conversations on more abstract topics.
- Be well understood by adults (and other children) outside of your family unit
- Produce almost all speech sounds without difficulty
Note: At around 8, you can expect them to be conversing in a way that mimics adult speech
When does a child need speech therapy? What are the common signs?
While this isn’t a comprehensive list, we’ve compiled some common signs that your child might be facing challenges that can be managed through speech therapy.
Sign 1: Difficulty Understanding and Following Instructions
If you find your child doesn’t seem to understand what is being asked of them or can’t follow what is being said in a developmentally appropriate way, you might consider engaging a speech therapist. The ability to understand and respond to instructions appears between 12 and 24 months, so if your child is struggling after this point, you might consider getting in touch with your healthcare provider and discussing your options.
Sign 2: Limited Vocabulary or limited expressive language
A language delay, continuously not meeting the milestones mentioned above, or an inability to express their thoughts, feelings and needs can be a sign that your child needs to see a speech pathologist. Sometimes this difficulty will appear in your child avoiding conversation, having meltdowns, or even experiencing behavioural difficulties at home or in childcare.
Sign 3: Unclear Speech
While it’s normal for children under 4 years old to be difficult to understand sometimes, lisping, stuttering, or disorganised speech are all factors that can signify it’s time to bring your child to see a speech therapist.
These can be a sign of things of even physical issues, like the physical shape of their palate or neurological differences: all things that can be managed with the help of a speech pathologist.
Sign 4: Trouble engaging in conversation
Is your child avoiding conversations? Or are they experiencing difficulties with turn-taking or understanding non-verbal cues? Speech therapy can increase their confidence and reduce their frustration levels, ultimately making them feel more included in their families and social circles.
Sign 5: Challenges with reading or writing
At different stages, this manifests differently: for those between 3 and 4, it might be issues with recognising letters and sounds. Reading, spelling, and comprehension difficulties in early primary school can also be a sign that your child needs to see a speech pathologist.
What is the Role of a Speech Therapist?
Speech therapy is tailored to the individual, their age and current level of language, as well as their goals. Essentially, the goal is to improve communication skills across the board, enabling your child to engage with you, themself, and others in a positive way. It usually begins with an assessment to determine what level they’re operating at and to identify any communication disorders that might be present.
Depending on your child’s needs and age, speech therapy will look different. However, evidence-based, play-based activities are common, as well as exercises that help your child interact with books, pictures, and objects. Speech therapists will often use engaging, gamified strategies of modelling correct sounds, sometimes with the support of flashcards, worksheets, or even digital tools and applications.
Choosing the right speech therapist
When you’re looking for a speech pathologist, you can look for practitioners with specific age or diagnostic specialties. But above all, you should prioritise someone with whom you and your child can feel comfortable. Sometimes, the environment can play a strong role in that equation: we offer home visits and often find that we get great outcomes in these situations, as children are more comfortable and more engaged.
Common speech and language disorders we can diagnose and treat
Before you start speech therapy with your child, you might not know what specific areas they need help with – you might just be aware of a cluster of symptoms and challenges. Working with a speech therapist, you can get a clearer picture of what issues might be at play and the causes behind them.
Speech Sound Disorders are a category of speech disorders that refer to multiple kinds of difficulties that an individual might have with producing speech sounds. This category encompasses articulation disorders, including lisping or replacing sounds (like /r/ sounds with /w/ sounds, or /th/ sounds with /s/ sounds.
Language Disorders encompass difficulties in both written and spoken language. They can impact a child’s educational journey as well as the way they connect with others and build relationships.
Fluency disorders are disruptions in the rhythm, flow, and timing of speech. Common manifestations include stuttering (repeating sounds or syllables in a way that impacts a speaker’s ability to produce fluent sentences) or cluttering (irregular speech rhythms, a rapid speech rate and disorganised patterns that make it hard for others to follow).
Sometimes these conditions are the result of neurological or developmental issues, and other times, they have their roots in things like hearing issues. As kids tend to learn to speak primarily through listening, it can be extremely difficult for kids to reproduce sounds accurately and be understood if they are struggling with their auditory processing. Thankfully, speech therapy can be tailored to kids encountering these challenges and often achieves excellent outcomes in both the short and long term.
Conditions like autism can also deeply impact a child’s ability to understand and be understood. But, with help from a speech therapist and plenty of reassurance, kids can learn to appropriately express themselves and engage in more meaningful communication with their caregivers and peers.
Understanding Common Speech and Language Delays
Often, speech delays or language delays or language delays are the first signs of speech and language development issues that parents notice. Understanding these two separate (yet sometimes overlapping) issues can help you understand if it’s time to get in touch with a speech pathologist.
Speech Delay: “Late talkers” or those at 18 to 30 months who might have a smaller spoken vocabulary than their peers. However, with a speech delay, they can still understand what is being said and respond to instructions, even if they can’t express themselves in relation to these.
Language Delay: Their ability to understand is also impacted, as well as their ability to express themselves or put words together. While these can be signs of learning difficulties, they are not in themselves classified as learning difficulties and can often be addressed effectively with speech therapy alone.
How Speech Therapy Can Help with Literacy and Academic Skills
Foundational skills like reading, writing, and comprehension are all informed by language skills.
Support from speech therapy can help your child participate better in the classroom through increased confidence. It can also benefit them socially in their childcare or school context, as they can communicate and relate better to others. Speech therapists help kids explore language and build their recognition of sounds and letters, laying the foundations of better literacy skills.
The Role of Parents and Caregivers in Supporting Speech Development
You can play an important role at home in supporting your child’s speech development while they work with a speech pathologist.
One of the most commonly recommended tactics is incorporating reading time into your child’s everyday routines to help build their interest and understanding of language. Sometimes, you don’t even have to focus on the words on a page – understanding how pictures can be interpreted through language is also an important skill that will eventually help with reading and writing.
Above all, parents are encouraged to try to help their children find joy in the language tasks that are causing them difficulty. You can do this by recognising their achievement, no matter how small it may seem and by celebrating the wins when they master a skill. Encourage them to try again with a positive attitude and avoid showing frustration – let home be a safe place where they can interact with the challenges they’re facing without pressure or negativity.
Next steps
It’s easy to panic about long-term outcomes when you encounter speech or language difficulties in your child, but it’s important not to panic. Supportive speech therapists are here to help your child and family thrive and communicate effectively. If you’d like to find out more about speech therapy and how it might benefit your child, we’d love to hear from you. You don’t need a referral to get in touch – you can start by contacting us and requesting a callback. We’ll be in touch within one business day.
