Early Warning Signs of a Language Delay
Last week, I shared Early Warning Signs of a Speech Delay for Infants and Early Warning Signs of a Speech Delay for 18+ Months, and today I want to share Early Warning Signs of a Language Delay!
To review, let’s talk about the difference between speech and language! It gets confusing for some people, because the two words are often lumped together (i.e., “speech language pathologist,” “speech language impairment,” “speech language evaluation”), but they really do refer to two different things. Speech, or articulation, refers to how we say sounds. Voice (how our vocal folds vibrate to create sound) and fluency (the rhythm of speech) are also frequently included when we talk about speech. According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),
Language
refers to the words we use and how we use them to share ideas and get what we want. Language includes:
What words mean. Some words have more than one meaning. For example, “star” can be a bright object in the sky or someone famous.
How to make new words. For example, we can say “friend,” “friendly,” or “unfriendly” and mean something different.
How to put words together. For example, in English we say, “Meg walked to the new store” instead of “Meg walk store new.”
What we should say at different times. For example, we might be polite and say, “Would you mind moving your foot?” But, if the person does not move, we may say, “Get off my foot!”
Language can be classified into two domains: receptive language, what we understand, and expressive language, how we share our thoughts, ideas and emotions. The two types of receptive language are reading and listening and the two types of expressive language are writing and speaking.
The chart below, from ASHA, outlines signs of language delay from birth to three years:
Birth – 3 months: not smiling or playing with others
4 – 7 months: not babbling
7 – 12 months: making only a few sounds; not using gestures, like waving or pointing
7 months – 2 years: not understanding what others say
12 – 18 months: saying only a few words
1.5 – 2 years: not putting two words together
2 years: saying fewer than 50 words
2 – 3 years: having trouble playing and talking with other children
2.5 – 3 years: having problems with early reading and writing
Here are some things that ASHA recommends you do to help facilitate your child’s language development:
Talking, reading, and playing with your child
Listening and responding to what your child says
Talking with your child in the language that you are most comfortable using
Teaching your child to speak another language, if you speak one
Talking about what you do and what your child does during the day
Using a lot of different words with your child
Using longer sentences, as your child gets older
Having your child play with other children
If you have concerns about your child’s language, there are many ways you can get a speech language evaluation, but your pediatrician is a great place to start. Your child’s pediatrician can refer you to an SLP (Speech Language Pathologist) to complete a comprehensive evaluation. If your child is younger than 3 years old, you can ask your state’s ECI (early childhood intervention) program and request to have your child evaluated to find out if he/she is eligible for speech/language services. This is a state funded program and free of cost. If your child is older than 3 years old, you can contact your public school district to request an evaluation.
As I said in Do’s and Don’ts of Speech Language Development, do not wait to see if your child will “outgrow it” or if it will “just go away.” A parent’s intuition is strong, and if you sense that your child may not be developing as anticipated, make sure to bring up your concerns to your pediatrician or your local ECI program. I can’t stress the importance of early intervention enough! According to the CDC, intervention is likely to be more effective when it is provided earlier in life rather than later and families benefit from early intervention by being able to better meet their children’s needs from an early age and throughout their lives.
If you have any additional questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at hello@macygilson.com or leave a comment below!