Children may say some sounds the wrong way as they learn to talk which is a typical part of development. By 4 years old, most children can say almost all speech sounds correctly and are understood by people outside of their family. Speech therapy can determine if your child’s errors are age-appropriate or if help is recommended.

Receptive and Expressive Language Skills are required to communicate wants and needs and advance all areas of learning

• Following Directions

• Understanding stories

• Improving vocabulary

• Forming grammatically correct sentences

• Thinking of the right words

• Telling stories that make sense

• Sequencing

• Memory recall
  

Developmental language disorder (DLD) is a communication disorder that interferes with learning, understanding, and using language. About 1 in 14 kindergarteners have a developmental language disorder. Because oral language is the bedrock of reading and writing, language difficulties can be the first sign of literacy difficulties. Speech therapy can strengthen your child’s vocabulary, grammar, and storytelling skills, which are all crucial parts of communication and literacy.

• History of language delay

• Slow to learn letter sounds or learning to read

• Small vocabulary, overuse of vague language like ‘stuff’ and ‘thing’

• Difficulty expressing thoughts clearly

• Disorganized storytelling (about one’s day or from a book)

• Frequent grammatical errors

• Difficulty following directions and answering WH- questions

• Correctly producing speech sounds

• Imprecise placement, timing, pressure, speed or flow of movement from lips/tongue/throat

• Difficulty being understood by others

A late talker is a child between 18-36 months whose spoken language is delayed even if there aren’t delays in other areas of development. A child experiences the most brain growth before 3 years of age, so early intervention is crucial.

• Limited babbling and/or imitation of gestures at 1 year

• By 18 months: Less than 10 true words, Not using several consonants, Not following 1-step directions

• By 2 years: Less than 50 words, Not combining 2 words, Not using language to communicate

• By 3 years: Less than 300 words, Not combining 2-3 words, Minimal grammar

• Support and services for infants, toddlers and their families

• Coaching and teaching caregivers how to enhance child development and communication in children Birth-5

• Free in-home services available through Multnomah Early Childhood Program (MECP)

Improving social communication with others

• Conversational skills

• Facial expressions

• Body language

• Making friends

• Interpreting and practicing social situations

Gestalt language processing is a style of language development. It is not a diagnosis or disorder, but another way children acquire language. Gestalt language processors communicate with whole memorized phrases (also called scripts, chunks, echolalia, or gestalts). This distinction is important so speech therapists can tailor their intervention.

• Uses scripts from favorite shows, movies or songs

• Scripted phrases might seem out-of-context

• Labels lots of objects, but has difficulties using the words for communication

• When asked a question, child may imitate the question instead of answering

Communication means talking with another person. These skills allow us to be social, to develop relationships and to give meaning to our world around us. For children, play is the primary facilitator of communication. Play supports social learning as children learn to work together, share space and negotiate with each other.

• Improve flow of speech by increasing knowledge of stuttering and decreasing moments of stuttering

• Repetition of sounds, syllables or words

• Prolongation of sounds

• Interruption of speech flow - blocks

• Struggle behaviors can accompany stuttering - rapid eye blinks, tension elsewhere

• Apraxia of speech is a motor speech disorder which interrupts the messages needed to go from your brain to your mouth

• These messages tell the muscles how and when to move to make speech/sounds.

• In a child with apraxia of speech, the messages do not get through rom the brain to the mouth correctly, resulting in a distorted word/sound

• A child with apraxia of speech knows what they want to say, but when the words come out they don’t sound right.

• Children with apraxia of speech may become skilled communicators through gestures or other means, however, the words they speak may be unclear, or a common “catch phrase” or the child might not be able to say much at all.

• Words may sound different each time

• Stresses the wrong syllables or words

• Distorts or changes vowel sounds

• Can say shorter words more clearly than longer words

• Delayed language

• Difficulties with fine or gross motor skills

• Needs intervention from a speech-language pathologist

• The movement of muscles in the mouth, jaw, tongue, lips and cheeks

• Strength and coordination and control of these oral structures are the foundation for feeding and speech

• Limited dietary preferences

• Excessive drooling

• Tongue Thrust

• Difficulty sucking, chewing, swallowing, blowing bubbles

• Poor articulation

• Messy eating

• AAC means all the ways that someone communicates besides talking

• No-tech and low-tech AAC includes gestures, facial expressions, writing, drawing, spelling words by pointing to letters, and/or pointing to photos, pictures or words

• High-tech AAC includes using an app on an iPad or tablet to communicate, using a computer with a ‘voice’ called a speech-generating device

• Executive functioning skills are necessary to allow individuals to plan and execute tasks as well as interact and communicate successfully with others.

• Controlling initiation and inhibition

• Sustaining and shifting attention

• Organization

• Attention

• Processing Speed

• Memory

• Completing tasks

• Determining plans for the future

• Fluid and abstract reasoning

• Complex problem solving

• Perspective taking

• Feeding therapy consists of trust-based therapy to help children progress with eating a variety of tastes and textures

• Consider these common signs of feeding difficulties -

• Food range of less than 20 foods

• Avoidance of aversion to foods of a specific texture or food group

• Ongoing gagging, coughing and choking during meals

• Poor weight management, weight loss

• Problems with vomiting

• Inability to transition to purees by 10 months

• Inability to accept any table foods by 12 months

• Inability to transition to cup by 16 months

• Children to adults may suffer from OMDs and this may interfere with normal growth and development of the muscles and bones in the face and mouth and how they are used for eating, talking and breathing

• People with OMDs may have problems talking, swallowing and breathing through their nose

• Tongue thrust is one type of OMD and is when individuals push their tongue out when they talk, drink or eat - causing messy eating and drinking, and accompanied by articulation disorders

• Overbite and underbites as well as other dental problems

• Drooling, beyond age 2

• Difficulty closing lips to swallow

• Tongue pushing past the teeth even when a person is not talking or using their tongue