Warning Signs of Speech Disorder

You should not panic if your child's progress in various speech and language development lags a little bit behind the average language milestones in my previous posts. About 5% of children experience developmental delays that is serious enough that you might want to seek professional help. The kid may have physical, neurological, or emotional problems that interfere with his ability to understand or speak the language. The first five years of your child's life are critical in the treatment of such problems.

Warning Signs of Speech Disorders

* Shows no response to sounds by six months of age.
* Uses mostly vowel sounds, very few consonants, in babbling after 12 months
* Does not use speech sounds or gestures to indicate wants and needs by 15 months.
* Does not say recognizable words in naming familiar people and objects by 18 months.
* At three, still does not use two or three word sentences.
* Speech still largely unintelligible at three.
* At three does not articulate beginning consonants on most words.
* Words ending consistently missing at the age of five.
* At five years of age, sentence structure are still noticeably simple and immature, not similar in complexity to that used by the family.
* At any age, shows marked hesitancy in speech or shows signs of stuttering, ex: "c-ca-cat" or struggles to get a sound our for longer than a second, ex: "c---at". Disfluency is not a factor, ex: "I want... I want to eat".
* Voice is monotone, too loud or too soft, or excessively nasal.
* Odd speech rhythm, rate of speech or inflection after the age of five.

Is your child showing three or more of these signs? If he is, see a developmental pediatrician at once.