by Ruby Ernica Samy

Created on: April 28, 2008

Your daughter has not started talking, though she is 2 years old. She says a few words, but in comparison to the children of her age group you feel that she is way behind and to slow. And when you compare your daughter with your sister's daughter who can put whole sentences together being of same age, you just end up worrying and wondering about your daughter's delay in her speech development.

As each one of us is different so is the growth process. Always remember my friend that some kids are early walkers and some are early talkers so in fact there is nothing to worry about. But if you know what's "normal "and what's not in speech and language development, the information can really help you to figure out if you should seek professional help or if your child is right on schedule.

Before we actually start to understand and recognize the signs of speech delay in children its important to know the causes of speech delay. There are mainly three common types of causes of speech delays which are

1.When the child is suffering from hearing problem meaning that he or she has major problems and trouble with the input of speech.
2.Due to mental retardation or development disorder the child can face difficulty in assessing and working with what is heard and may have trouble with the processing of speech.
3.The child can in fact suffer from problems with output of speech meaning that the child can not speak at all.

WARNING SIGNS OF SPEECH DELAY AT DIFFERENT AGE LEVELS

BETWEEN 12 TO 24 MONTHS When the infant does not respond to sounds or do not vocalize in any manner between 12 to 24 months it's possible that he or she is facing some speech and language development problem. The common signs to recognize speech delay for this age group are that if by 12 months the child does not use gestures, such as pointing or waving bye bye. And by 18 months if the child prefers to communicate by using gestures then vocalizations, hasn't said at least one word and has a problem in imitating sounds then it's time to get concerned and seek professional help. When the child does not babble or speak in mock sentences at all; he does not seem to understand you and you get no response when you talk, these are some warning signs of speech delay which can be recognized easily.

BETWEEN 2 TO 3 YEARS - You should seek professional help if a child of 2 years or over is only able to imitate speech or actions and is incapable of producing words or phrases quickly and spontaneously. When the child can not

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>