Speech Delay In Language Development

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Speech Delay About 5-10% of children have a developmental disability that causes a delay in their speech and language development. It is important to keep in mind that language development involves more than just speech, it also includes other forms of communication, such as sign language, writing, and visual skills (pointing, etc.). Parents are usually the first to notice that their child is not developing their language skills at the same rate as similarly aged children and will describe their child as 'not talking,' 'a late talker,' or 'not speaking yet.' A speech delay can be caused from problems with the output of speech (anatomical problems with the vocal cords, etc.), the input of speech (hearing loss), or the processing of speech (mental…show more content…
With early intervention (speech therapy), most of these children will have improved speech by the time they begin school and their speech will ultimately become…show more content…
In addition to expressive and receptive delays, children with these conditions will also commonly have a delay in their visual language skills (recognizing objects, responding to facial expressions, following commands that are accompanied with a gesture indicating what you want done, pointing to desired objects, etc.). Things that don't cause speech delays are a child being 'tongue-tied,' being 'lazy,' having a lot of siblings that 'talk for him,' or living in a bilingual family. The early speech and language milestones which are listed below include the upper limit of when 75% of infants meet this milestone, so your child may still be developing normally if he has not mastered a milestone by the age indicated. These milestones should be used as a general guideline to help identify infants that are at risk for having speech and language problems so that their development can be watched closely. You should discuss it with your Pediatrician if your infant is not meeting these milestones on time, or if he has a regression or loss of language skills that he has already learned, so that he or she can review his overall development (language, social, fine motor and gross motor skills) and determine what, if any, interventions need to be made. Among the screening tests available that your Pediatrician may perform are the Early Language Milestone (ELM)

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