Humans are social beings and always display a craving to communicate.Be it an infant who lures you by his coos and goos or be it an adult who can speak out his complex thoughts, the desire to communicate is reflected at all ages.
However for some kids, speech and language development may not be as smooth and easy as it should be! It is important to identify and understand their difficulties as early as possible.
Never let a speech delay hold back your child 's normal development. You can use the following checklist to see if your child's speech is at par with his age.
Articulation (pronunciation of speech sounds)
You may have a concern about the clarity of your child’s speech. The acquisition of new sounds has a developmental pattern in children, but by the age of 6yrs-7yrs all children should have mastered all speech sounds.
General guidelines for parents:
- 2-3 years: p, b, m, w, h and all vowels
- 4-5 years: d, t, n, g, k, f, y, ng
- 6-7 years: r, l, s, ch, sh, z, j, v, th, sh
Voice:
You may have a concern about your child's voice if your child manifests :
- Very high or low voice pitch
- Very high or low voice volume, which may cause hoarseness or breathiness
- Too much of nasal resonance
Fluency of speech
You may have a concern about your child's speech fluency if your child shows:
- hesitations or pauses which break up the natural rhythm of speech
- repetitions of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases
- prolongations of sounds or words
Play Skills:
You may have a concern about your child's play skills if your child does not demonstrate the following skills at appropriate ages:
- 6 months - brings hands or toys to mouth
- 9 months - bangs objects together
- 12 months - takes things out of containers
- 15 months - stacks 2 blocks
- 18 months - pushes and pulls toys or objects while walking
- 2 years - enjoys watching and playing near other children, copies your actions (e.g.: clapping hands)
- 30 months - acts out daily routines with toys
- 3 years - plays alongside others comfortably
- 3 years - plays make-believe games with actions and words
- 4 years - takes turns and shares with other children in small groups
- 5 years - plays make-believe games with others
- 5 years - shares willingly with others
- 6 years - plays cooperatively with 2 to 3 other children for 20 minutes
Social Skills:
There may be a concern about your child's social skills if your child does not demonstrate the following skills at
appropriate ages:
- 4 months - laughs and smiles at you, brightens to sound, especially voices
- 6 months - smiles and babbles in response to adult attention
- 9 months - imitates facial expressions, has a special smile for familiar adults, fusses or cries if a familiar adult looks or acts differently
- 12 months - takes turns making sounds with you, shows emotions e.g.: anger, affection, joy, and fear, starts games with you e.g.: peek-a-boo, clapping
- 15 months - repeats an action that makes you laugh, looks at you to see how you react e.g.: after falling, or when a stranger enters the room
- 18 months - shows affection towards people, pets, or toys, points to show you something, looks at you when talking or playing together
- 2 years - says "no" and likes to do things without help
- 30 months - waits briefly for needs to be met e.g.: when placed in a highchair, recognizes self in the mirror
- 3 years - shares, some of the time, shows affection using words and actions, greets friends and familiar adults when reminded
- 4 years - takes turns and shares with other children in small groups, tries to comfort someone who is upset, looks for adult approval
- 5 years - separates easily from you, responds verbally to "hi" and "how are you?", shares willingly with others
- 6 years - apologizes for actions he/she didn't mean to do, listens while others are speaking, shows an understanding of right/wrong, helps others, explains rules of a game to others
Hearing:
Have your child's hearing checked as early as possible to ensure that hearing loss in not affecting your child's communication development.
No comments:
Post a Comment