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Children
Speech Pathologists are trained to assess and treat children with communication and swallowing difficulties. A child may have difficulties in one or more of the following areas:
Articulation
We commonly work with children who have difficulty producing the sounds required for normal speech and who are difficult to understand. For example: “wabbit” for ‘rabbit’.
Literacy
Reading involves identifying separate sounds within words and this can be difficult for some children. Spelling is a complex process that involves sequencing sounds and applying those special rules. It is common for children with articulation difficulties to have literacy difficulties. We can help your child to read and spell at an age appropriate level.
Language
A child with a receptive language difficulty may have difficulties understanding others and following directions.
A child with an expressive language difficulty may have trouble forming sentences and using correct grammar. Some children also have a reduced number of words in their vocabulary, and may communicate more often with gestures and noises than with words.
Social Skills
A child with a pragmatic disorder has difficulty using language appropriately in social situations. For example, they may interrupt others, have poor eye contact and have difficulty taking turns during conversations.
Stuttering
A child with a fluency disorder (stutter) has difficulty producing speech that flows smoothly. There are several evidence-based programs that are design to reduce stuttering.
Voice
A voice disorder can occur at any age. A child with a voice disorder may sound hoarse, husky, croaky, strained, strangled or have a shaky voice. A child may complain of having a tight or sore throat during and/or after speaking, feeling of a tired voice or have a need to cough or clear the throat when talking.
Swallowing
Children who have difficulty eating, drinking and swallowing can benefit from speech therapy. This includes children with cleft palates, behavioural eating difficulties, poor muscle tone or acquired swallowing difficulties.
How Can I Tell If My Child’s Development Is On Track?
By 1 Year Old
- Respond to familiar sounds such as the telephone ringing and the vacuum cleaner
- Understands simple commands such as “no” and “stop”
- Responds to his/her name
- Understands the names of familiar objects and people (e.g. ‘drink’ and their pet’s name)
- Say a few common words such as ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’
- Uses gestures to communicate
1 Year To 2 Years Old
- Imitates words and sounds
- Listen to stories and produces the names of common pictures
- Name simple body parts – nose and leg
- Understand simple sentences such as “where is your shoe?”
- Use more than 50 words such as “no”, “gone”, “mine”, and “teddy”
- Sing simple songs such as “Twinkle, Twinkle little star”
- Use some pronouns instead of names such as “he”, “she”, and “it”
- Beginning to put words together (e.g. milk gone)
2 Years To 3 Years Old
- Understand what objects are used for (e.g. a crayon is something to draw with)
- Follow directions involving two objects and two actions (e.g. Give me the cup and put the spoon on the floor.)
- Requests objects by naming
- Knows at least three prepositions (e.g. in, on, under)
- Uses three to four word sentences
- Use ‘-ing’ and plural ‘-s’ endings
- Enjoy telling stories and asking questions
- Be understood by familiar adults
- Uses sounds such as /h/, /p/, /m/, /w/, /b/, /n/, /t/, /d/
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3 Years To 4 Years Old
- Understands shapes and colour names
- Understands opposites (e.g. stop/go)
- Ask who, what and why questions
- Uses lots of words (about 900) in four to five word sentences
- Uses correct grammar (e.g. a, the, is, are, irregular past tense) with occasional mistakes such as “I falled down”
- Uses at least four prepositions
- Uses language when playing with other children
- Speak clearly enough to be understood by most people
- Uses sounds such as /k/, /g/, /f/, /v/, /l/
5 Years Old
- Tell long stories about their own experiences
- Follow instructions with three elements
- Have knowledge of number and letter names
- Use indirect questions such as saying “are you thirsty” (when they are thirsty)
- Uses “and”, “but”, “when”, “because”, “so” and “if” in sentences
- Uses more descriptive words (e.g. pretty)
- Uses sounds such as /s/, /z/, /sh/, /ch/, /j/, /r/
Please be aware that this is only a guide. If you would like further information, please contact our team.