Welcome back to Part IV of this multi-part blog. So far we have covered that speech therapy is a process, speech homework is important, and that your child’s speech therapy needs to be a priority in a packed schedule.
The next group of blogs shift gears and will focus on (sadly) common false information that parents are told by well-meaning pediatricians and family and friends.
The most common lie that parents are told is that if a child is not talking by the age of 2, “it’s not a big deal, wait till they are 3” or “They will talk when they are ready, don’t worry about it.” Let me be very clear…Not talking at the age of 2 is a very VERY BIG deal!!! I get calls all the time from parents that their child is 2, 3, 4 years old and their child has only a couple of words. This is a HUGE red flag! By the age of 2, children should have about 200-300 words, by the age of 3, they should have 1,000 words, and by the age of 4, 1,600 words! The earlier a child begins intervention, the smaller the delay which sets the child up for greater success. For example, let’s say your child is 18-months old and only has 3 words (what we expect of a 12-month old). The average number of words expected for an 18-month old is 50 words. This means that the child has a 6-month delay. Now let’s say, you wait to contact a speech pathologist till your child is 3 years old and they now have 20 words. The average number of words for a 3-year old is 1,000 words. This now equates to a 22-month delay. The earlier intervention starts, the chances increase for your child to catch up to their same age peers at a quicker rate.
Those statistics are just for vocabulary development. At the same time, young children are beginning to learn and apply the rules of grammar. By the age of 2, children should be combining words into 2-3 words utterances that are novel. By novel, this means that they are not just repeating phrases you have said but combining words to express what is going on in their environment. They are beginning to demonstrate that language can be used to describe things, ask questions, obtain items, and show feelings. By the age of 3, 3-4 word utterances and by the age of 4 using the same grammar as the rest of the household.
I have had multiple parents tell me that their pediatrician said not to worry, that they would outgrow it. I have also been told that they know someone whose child was not talking and is now fine. Sure, there is always that story of your friend’s, cousin’s, neighbor’s, uncle’s, brother’s, co-worker’s child who started speaking out of the blue in full and complete sentences at the age of 5. However, one, I would really question the validity of that story and, two, if on the extremely improbable chance that it is true, it is definitely the exception and not the norm! Research has shown that children who had language delays but caught up by Kindergarten are more likely to have additional academic, social, and emotional needs than children who met developmental norms for language development. So in other words, don’t wait, evaluate!"
About the Author
Janene Besch
Director/Speech-Language Pathologist
Janene Besch, née Martin, holds a Master's degree in Speech Language and Hearing Sciences from San Diego State University and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of California at San Diego. Janene is a member of the American Academy of Private Practice in Speech Pathology
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Welcome back to our last post in the series “Milestones: Navigating the Numbers”! This series was inspired by the updated American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s (ASHA) Developmental Milestones. Read more on the expected speech, language, social-pragmatic, and feeding milestones expected by age 1, age 2, age 3 and age 4.