Some milestones to identify possible problems.

  • By 18 months, children should use single words to convey a variety of messages. They should use these words meaningfully and not simply in a repetitive fashion.
  • By around 2 years, children should be combining two to three words together to create meaningful phrases. The child should also be able to use pronouns such as he, she, him, her, them, me, you etc. They should also be able to label objects in the environment and follow simple instructions such as ‘touch your nose’.
  • Around 3 years of age, the child should begin using full sentences to express him or herself e.g. ‘Yesterday I ate lunch’. They should also begin to combine sentences together e.g. ‘I fetched my shoes and I put them on’. He or she should be able to follow more complicated instructions with more than part e.g. ‘Go to your room, fetch your shoes and bring them here’.
  • By 4 years the child’s language should be very adult-like and should not be too different from his parents’. They use complicated sentences that express their needs adequately. They should understand all language spoken to them and should be able to carry out commands with ease.
  • When unsure whether the child has a problem, the easiest way to check is to compare him/her to her peers and siblings when they were the same age. Although there will differences between the children, they should be able to do tasks within basically the same time frame as the others.

Warning signs:

Any Age:

  • ‘Slushy’ speech that makes it difficult for people (other than the child’s mom) to understand what is being said.
  • The child struggles to understand stories and instructions appropriate to their age level.
  • Excessive use of gesture and vocalisations at an age where words are expected.
  • Struggles to express thoughts, ideas and needs using language appropriate to their level of development.
  • Forgets instructions and other information easily.
  • Lack of interest in communicating, ignoring those around them, lack of verbalisation and fixations with certain objects/ behaviours.
  • Developmental issues such as Cerebral Palsy, Autism and Down syndrome also influence speech and language development and generally require intervention by a Speech Therapist.

Grade 0:

  • The child does not know concepts such as colour, shape, counting and prepositions.
  • Poor social skills (break the basic rules of conversation such as eye contact and topic maintenance).
  • Struggles to remember nursery rhymes and stories.
  • Struggles to recognize sounds and differentiate between them.
  • Poor development of foundational skills for reading and writing.
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