What to do if you’re worried about your child’s speech

We all know that speech and language develop at different stages and ages for different people, but some children don’t show neurotypical speech development and sound and speak differently to their typical peers. So what to do if you feel this may be happening for your child? We spoke with Dr Jenny Blum to understand more…

Step one is to recognise that parents are usually right if they feel somethings not quite right in their child’s development and to seek advice from those people who have studied and practiced in the area of speech development. Speech Pathologists/therapists usually have a 3 to 4 year university degree and can also include a longer Masters degree, or even a Phd adding to the scientific research base. Additionally, Speech Pathologists are usually registered with medicare and have an association to regulate their ethical and professional behaviour.

The sooner you seek advice the better. This can be as young as babies for feeding or young one year olds and certainly two year olds who are expected to use hundreds of words and start to put two words together into small sentences.

• Typical development for three year olds includes being very clear and using small sentences and thousands of words without stuttering. They can clearly say t and k and p and b and m and h sounds well and even long sounds like f and s are beginning to be clear at 3 years.
• Two and three year olds are expected to be social and engage well with others and not be violent or tantrum too long.
• Typical 4 year olds are very clear and very social.
• Five year olds should be able to say all their sounds correctly and show signs of interest in reading and be able to tell a story and hold a conversation with a new adult and play well with peers.
• Typical development for Primary school children would be able to do their homework independently and learn to read and write well.
• Typical High school students should be passing school and communicating their feelings to you and be very social.

If you have any concerns call our resident speech language pathologist Dr Jenny Blum on 0419636613 just to have a talk about your concerns. All ages and difficulties can be helped.