How we helped a child with trilingual parents speak in 2 months
The Background
C is a two year old girl whose parents were concerned about her language development as she was not able to express herself using words. We realised that C’s parents were alternating between three languages in any given conversation with her and this resulted in C not being able to master any of the languages. This has limited her ability to express herself using words - even familiar ones.
The Solution
The results of the assessment conducted by our Speech Therapist showed that C presents an oral language delay on how she receives a message and how she expresses herself. The Speech therapy goal was to develop her oral language skills on both fronts. To accomplish this, one of the first things that was necessary was to provide parental guidance and recommendations to follow at home and at the nursery.
The Success
We executed the plan well and involved stakeholders (parents and nursery teachers) to have consistent progress. We saw improvements in the next two months. During the first month, C was able to say words but not consistently. She leveled up during the second month as she was able to speak short phrases more consistently, for example, “give me” or “eat apple”. She was also able to follow simple instructions without help.
Her mom was also asked to sit in some session to observe how she could help C practice at home and apply the same techniques which were integral to C’s speech development.
With parental collaboration, C started to engage more in conversations and needed lesser support with time in just two months.
Case was handled by
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. 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 and communication disorders (including Dyslexia), feeding and swallowing disorders, learning disabilities, cognitive and voice disorders.