6 signs your child may benefit from a Speech and Language evaluation
Your child is not making early speech sounds including cooing or babbling. Around two months of age a baby will begin cooing or making vowel-like sounds. Babbling (using reduplicated syllables such as mamama, bababa, dadada, etc.) begins to emerge around six or seven months of age.
Your child does not understand spoken directions. Between 13-18 months you should notice your child begin to follow simple, routine directions (e.g., sit down, get your shoes, etc.).
Your child is not using gestures or words to communicate wants and needs. Between 7 to 12 months children will begin to use gestures and/or vocalizations to express their wants and needs. Common gestures are waving, clapping, putting up their arms to be picked up, and pointing. Some children might even shake their heads “no” or push something away in protest. Gestures may be accompanied by vocalizations including squealing in excitement or grunting to gain attention. Typically, you will see first words anywhere around 12 months of age.
Your child has trouble producing age-appropriate sounds. While it is typical for younger children to produce speech sound errors, it is important to know what sounds are expected by certain ages. A child is only expected to be 50% intelligible by age two, 75% intelligible by age three, and 80% intelligible by age four. The majority of children will be 100% intelligible to unfamiliar listeners by 5 years of age. For more information on speech sound development, please see our post “What Sounds Should my Child be Producing?”.
Your child has difficulty fluently communicating his/her wants, needs and ideas. It is quite common for some children to experience what is known as “developmental stuttering” before the age of five. However, if your child’s disfluencies persist longer than six months, grow progressively more frequent or severe, or if your child begins stuttering after the age of five, it might be best to have your child evaluated.
Your child has difficulty interacting with peers. If you notice that your child has difficulty socializing with peers, they may benefit from a speech and language evaluation. These challenges may include and but are not limited to: initiating or joining in play or conversation with others, sharing, demonstrating age-appropriate play skills with peers, displaying empathy, building rapport with others, reading body language or emotions of others, identifying or sharing their own emotions, respecting personal space, and/or problem solving. Children may benefit from one-on-one and therapy in a small group to support development of these skills.