As parents, it's natural to worry about whether our children may need some extra supports to develop key language skills. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association offers these basic guidelines for age-specific behaviours that should trigger a referral to a specialist. For the full article, please visit the association's website.
Potential Consequences/Impact of Speech Impairment Can Include
- Difficulty expressing need or routine information intelligibly
- Difficulty communicating intelligibly in order to function at level of independence expected for age
- Difficulty expressing feelings intelligibly; may be at risk for frustration or depression
- Difficulty engaging successfully in social and/or classroom situations that require intelligible speech
- Difficulty achieving adequate intelligible speech to reach educational potential
- At risk for personal injury due to difficulty communicating intelligibly about a dangerous situation or calling for help
Behaviors that should trigger an speech language pathologist referral
By age 3 years cannot:
- be understood by family and/or caregivers
- correctly produce vowels and such sounds as p, b, m, w in words
- repeat when not understood without becoming frustrated
By age 4 years cannot:
- be understood by individuals with whom they do not associate regularly
- be understood by family and/or caregivers
- correctly produce t, d, k, g, f
- be asked to repeat without becoming sensitive
By age 5 years cannot:
- be understood in all situations by most listeners
- correctly produce most speech sounds
- be asked to repeat without exhibiting frustration
Parents may also want to seek a referral to a specialist if the child exhibits a decline in abilities in speech and language.