About speech and language

Communication difficulties in childhood is not uncommon. Whilst there are known causes for some communication disorders (e.g., hearing impairment, medical/genetic conditions), sometimes the cause of a communication disorder is unknown. A speech and/or language disorder can range in severity, and can impact a person in many ways (socially, academically, psychologically etc.). Early identification and management is essential to try and minimise these factors.

Speech Sound Disorders

About SSD:
Words are made up of individual sounds. Young children sometimes have difficulties using the right sounds, in fact all children will make errors with their sounds as they are learning to talk. Most of the time, these errors are developmentally appropriate (many children make these errors in an expected way/pattern for their age, and the errors will remediate by themselves as a child develops). Some sounds are easy to learn and will be mastered earlier than other sounds. For example, sounds like “p, b, m” are earlier sounds, while other sounds like “th, r, s” are harder to learn and children will master them a little later.

Errors made by a child that are outside of age-appropriate expectations may be indicative of a speech sound disorder. The cause of speech sound disorders can sometimes be unknown. Other times, speech sound disorders may be caused by things like: hearing impairment, developmental or genetic syndromes, speech motor processing impairments (i.e., Childhood Apraxia of Speech) etc.

Characteristics:

A child may substitute a sound for another sound or sounds, they may add sounds in where they shouldn’t, leave out sounds, or leave out several sounds (so that a part of a word ends up being missing). Sometimes this may be because a child cannot make a certain sound yet (e.g., “r” sound or “th” sound), and other times it may be because the child is using a certain pattern when they produce their sounds (e.g., they may use “b” or “t” for all words that start with a “v” or “s” – “ban” for “van” and “tun” for “sun”).

When this occurs, this may make a child difficult for others to understand them.

Assessment:

Assessment will be individualised based on the child’s presentation and age. Assessment may involve:

Listening to how your child produces sounds during single words and in conversation
Understanding how your child perceives sounds when they are being said by others
Looking at the child’s oral structures to see that there is no structural reason which could be potentially causing the speech errors (e.g., a tongue tie etc.)
Assessing the child in other related areas including language abilities

As hearing impairment and/or having a history of ear infections may be a cause for speech sound disorder, your speech pathologist will also recommend a hearing test (if one has not been done recently).

Treatment:

Treatment will be individualised based on the child’s assessment results and/or diagnosis. There are a wide range of evidence-based treatment approaches for which to treat speech sound disorders and your speech pathologist will discuss the best option/s for your child’s presentation with you.

Little girl and little boy have decided to take a break from homework and now they are hav

Portrait Of Multi-Cultural Children Hanging Out With Friends In The Countryside Together_e

Language

About language:

Language is the words that we use or understand. Language includes speaking, understanding, reading and writing. Broadly, language is broken up into 2 specific areas:

Expressive language is what is using words to speak, write, or sign.

Receptive language is understanding words that are spoken, written or signed.

Babies start to learn and interact as soon as they are born, and while children are all individuals, there are language milestones that can guide parents and caregivers as to when they should seek help from a speech pathologist.

Speech Pathology Australia has a great resource called the Communication Milestone Poster which summarises some of these developmental milestones across the areas of both expressive and receptive language (see here)

Here are some very brief highlights of some of what we might expect in the areas of receptive and expressive language as children develop:

Receptive language

At 12 months of age, children can typically understand about 10 familiar words from their environment (e.g., names of objects or people they know). They can respond to simple requests and make eye contact.
At 18 months of age children can understand up to around 50 familiar words, point to objects when named from their environment or to pictures in a book.
At 2 years, children can point to named body parts and can follow simple 2-part requests.
At 3 years, children can understand some contrasting concepts such as hot/cold, can understand some who/what/where questions.
At 4 years, children can enjoy simple stories, can answer questions about them.

Expressive language

At 12 months of age, children will be starting to use a few ‘real’ words and gesture.
Between 18-24 months of age, children will have a vocabulary of up to 50 words, make animal/environmental sounds, start to combine 2 words together.
Between 2-3 years, children will start using 3-word phrases, answer simple questions, start to use pronouns such as “you”, “mine”, “I”.
Between 3-4 years of age, sentences are getting longer and more complex and they will start to talk about things that happen outside of the home.

Assessment:

If parents are concerned, they should get in contact with a speech pathologist who will conduct an assessment that is individualised based on the child’s presentation and age. Assessment may involve:

Gathering a case/background history
Conducting informal, play-based observations in (or away from) the clinic
Conducting a formal (standardised) language assessment
Assessing other related areas (e.g., pre-literacy skills etc.) as required

Sometimes, a hearing impairment or frequent ear infections may be one of the reasons a child is not understanding what is being said to them, so your speech pathologist will also recommend a hearing test (if one has not been done recently).

Treatment: