As a parent, it’s very common to worry about your child’s development, especially if they don’t seem to be doing things like talking or producing sounds correctly at the same time as a friend’s child or one of your other kids.
If you have concerns, you should find a local speech-language pathologist, or contact us here for a free consultation.
When deciding whether to recommend therapy services, therapists will consider several key factors. Additional considerations and qualification requirements will vary depending on where you’re receiving services, but these three are important questions every therapist should be asking.
1. Are their skills developmentally appropriate?
All children develop at different rates. This means that there isn’t a specific date that your child should have a skill by.
Speech and language skills develop within ranges that are considered typical.
These ranges vary with each particular skill, and sometimes even between boys and girls. A therapist will look at the skills your child has, and determine whether those are developmentally appropriate for their age.
Your child may have trouble producing a certain sound, or describing things in great detail. But depending on how old they are, that could be perfectly normal, because they aren’t yet outside of the range when that skill usually develops.
But, if your child’s skills are developing more slowly than what’s considered “typical”, your therapist should look at the next two points, which are about the impact the delay is having.
2. Is the delay affecting your child’s academics?
Sometimes delays might not have any impact on academics. That typically occurs if a child only has 1-2 sounds that they’re producing incorrectly, but they can still recognize the sound, distinguish it from other sounds, and read or write it appropriately if they’re at that age.
But most of the time, a speech or language delay can make it much more challenging for a child to keep up in school, because there’s a fundamental language concept that they’re struggling with.
Your therapist will look at how they’re performing in school compared to other students their age, potentially talking to their teachers or other service providers in the school to determine if the delay is negatively impacting their academic progress.
3. Is the delay affecting your child socially?
The social impact of a speech or language delay can vary significantly for each child, and many don’t experience any social impact.
However, your therapist may ask questions like:
- Does your child have trouble communicating their thoughts or ideas to people?
- If they have trouble producing sounds correctly, does that make it more difficult for people to understand them?
- Is your child aware that they sound different or are having more trouble in class than the other students, and is that making them feel embarrassed or self-conscious?
- Is your child interacting with people differently than other kids their age because of the way the delay makes them feel?
If your child does have a speech or language delay that is negatively impacting their academics, social life, or both, they would most likely benefit from speech therapy services.
Even if there aren’t any negative effects at this time, they may still need therapy if certain skills are significantly delayed. Early intervention can be critical for effective treatment, especially for language development in young kids.
How did you know your child needed speech therapy? Let me know in the comments!
