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Information

Editors

MariQvarnström

Speech and Language Development

Essentials

Referral to a speech therapist at different ages

  • First year of life
    • Little vocalizing and babbling
    • Poor contact with adults
    • Suspicion of impaired hearing
    • Orientation, sucking, and swallowing reflexes are poorly developed; difficulties in eating
    • Short frenulum of the tongue Structural Anomalies in Children
  • Children aged 1-2 years
    • No words or attempted words or other attempts at expressing oneself (gestures)
    • Suspicion of poor speech comprehension or does not obey commands (remember recurrent otitis media as a cause of impaired hearing)
    • Poor alertness
    • Difficult to make contact with the child
    • Speech is scant or not clear after the second birthday.
    • If a child who has grown in a bilingual family has a sparse vocabulary but otherwise develops normally and understands speech and requests normally, follow-up of speech development is still a sufficient measure.
  • Children aged 3-4 years
    • Speech is defective or not clear (phonemes or syllables change place, long words are shortened)
    • Major grammatical errors
    • Poor vocabulary, difficulty in finding words
    • Little speech, no or only a few sentences
    • Inadequate answers, "own language"
    • Stammering continues or starts after the physiological stammering age (at about 3 years)
    • Poor contact, the child does not stop to listen
    • Difficulties in following short instructions.
  • Children aged 5-6 years
    • Pronunciation errors (r, s, l, k etc.) should be corrected before school age
    • Non-fluent speech (stammering, slurred speech)
    • Language or speech is scant or poorly developed in relation to age
    • The overall speech is not clear, which may be due to problems with motor and/or phonological fluency or difficulties in the ability to comprehend spoken language.
  • Children aged 7-15 years
    • All the abovementioned problems if they have not been investigated before
    • Particularly problems that significantly affect speech