What causes a speech delay?
Speech is the verbal expression of language that includes articulation. It is the way we form sounds and words. When your child is at two years old, you should be able to understand about 50% of what they are saying and when they are three years old, you should be able to understand 75% of their speech. By four years old, a child should be mostly understood, even by people who do not know them.
Identifying speech challenges
A child with a speech delay might use words and phrases to express ideas but people around them might find it hard to understand what the child is trying to convey. Many kids with speech delays have oral-motor problems when there's a problem in the areas of the brain responsible for speech. This makes it hard to coordinate the lips, tongue, and jaw to make speech sounds. These kids also might have other oral-motor problems, such as feeding problems.
Hearing problems also can affect speech and an audiologist should test a child's hearing whenever there's a speech concern. Kids who have trouble hearing may have trouble saying, understanding, imitating, and using language.
Ear infections, especially chronic infections, can affect hearing but as long as there is normal hearing in one ear, speech and language will develop normally.
It’s important to identify speech problems early, so your child can begin treatment as soon as possible before the problem worsens and get increasingly difficult to correct.
The American Speech- Language- Hearing Association (ASHA) says: “The earlier a child's speech and language problems are identified and treated, the less likely it is that problems will persist or get worse.
What to do at home
As a parent or a caregiver, you can also change the way you communicate with your child to help them improve. Here are four ways to increase your child’s speech clarity:
Slow down your rate of speech and enunciate your words.
Face your child during conversations so that they can see your mouth movements.
Build your Child’s Speech Awareness. Focus on feedback such as, “I couldn’t understand that, can you tell me again slower?” Model the phrase using turtle talk and ask them to repeat. When their speech is clear, immediately give positive feedback and respond to requests.
Meet our Speech Therapist.
Early intervention is key. If you suspect that your child might need professional help, you may drop us an email at hello@bemeservices.com.
Carine El Lakkis
Speech and Language Therapist
Masters in Speech and Language Therapy
Masters in Neuropsychology of Oral and Written Language
Carine El Lakis is a Speech Therapist with 7 years of experience in the field. She graduated from the Lebanese University- Faculty of Public Health, Lebanon and started her career in different inclusive schools and she practiced as well in her own private clinic.
Her clinical experience includes the planning and the administration of therapies to patients from all ages, especially children aged 2 to 12 years old with language disorders, communication disorders, feeding and swallowing disorders, learning disabilities, cognitive disorders and voice disorders.
She has attended many seminars and conducted many training and workshops designed to educate parents, caregivers and teachers about speech-language disorders, their impact on academics and social behaviors and strategies for development.