All About Delayed Speech

[cnimed]

linden2000:

Don't be so hard on yourself. Think few parents would have thought of blocked ears as cause for speech delay.

I thought that was the first thing the pd will check for when faced with signs of delayed/unclear speech? Two children in my neighbourhood had that picked out at around 2.5 because of their speech. Their pds immediately checked their ears, and sent them for hearing tests. Subsequently they both had ear surgery to drain out the fluids in their ears. One of them only had 20% hearing because of the fluids. No other issues.

Besides hearing loss, other physical causes could be controlling the tongue muscles or short tongue in which case the speech will be unclear and you may need some advice from a speech therapist. But parents can do a lot in implementing the exercises.

For some it is environmental. No one really talking to them in a slow, clear manner, too much TV with very limited clear speech.

For some it is temperament. Shy, prefers to observe, don't like to make mistakes. These kids have no problem. They will speak when they are ready to.

To be honest I didn't keep track of my children's speech and I'm always amazed by how many younger mothers are worried that their toddlers are not speaking when I meet them at the playground.

To an extent, I think ignorance is bliss. I spoke to my kids slowly and clearly, gave them the names of objects as we encounter them in everyday life, ask them questions and supplied them with words, and no kiddy TV in the first two years. The early years are input years. No input there can be no output right? I think if we make sure we give them clear steady input in the early years, there is no need to worry until after 2 years old. It is unrealistic to worry about their speech from 0-2.5 because there can be so many developmental differences even the doctors will just tell you to observe and KIV.

DS2 spoke earlier, but what he did was to repeat the last two words of ANYTHING that ds1 said. He would follow ds1 around the house and repeat words after ds1. We were bemused, but we did not pay attention. A child psychologist visiting ds1 noted it, but she did not say much. If I had looked it up then, I might have been pointed to echololia, which is a potential sign of autism or aspergers, and worried myself. But I didn't.

[botakgundul]

deminc:

It is unrealistic to worry about their speech from 0-2.5 because there can be so many developmental differences even the doctors will just tell you to observe

I agree w/ u. My baseline is after 3 yrs old. 0-2.5 yrs old r considered very young & too early to tell. During these ages, they still can grow.

[jedamum]

deminc:

I thought that was the first thing the pd will check for when faced with signs of delayed/unclear speech? Two children in my neighbourhood had that picked out at around 2.5 because of their speech. Their pds immediately checked their ears, and sent them for hearing tests. Subsequently they both had ear surgery to drain out the fluids in their ears. One of them only had 20% hearing because of the fluids. No other issues.

that is provided that the kid go to PD in the first place and/or go back for yearly checkups as the mandatory jabs stopped at 18mths. usually 'slow' speech is not a concern for 2yo and hence the 3yo checkup is crucial for the pd to assess the milestones of the child. even during our 3yo checkup at the polyclinic, the dr/nurse(?) did not comment on the speech as children were supposed to develop at a different pace and it is not uncommon for 3yo to not yet being able to speak well. it was after that checkup that i asked for the referral to seek ADHD specialist (under ds2's preschool's suggestion) that i was told by the specialist to seek speech specialist's help and given instructions to go for hearing tests. blessing in disguise, as if not for our need to seek ADHD's specialist, perhaps the blocked ears may be overlooked until the 4yo assessment if i adopt the 'all kids will eventually speak/don't compare ds2's milestone with ds1' mentality. (my ds2's ear was partially blocked; i was told that if we had delayed further, the blockage could have worsen.) i count my blessings.

[cnimed]

Sometimes we are at the mercy of the doctors/pds we see. Medicine is as much an art as it is a science. After seeing so many doctors in the past 2 years, I am much more selective about who I pay now.


to be fair though, I think polyclinic doctors would be more conservative since they would not want to cause unwarranted expenditure based on just a hunch. They will only refer on for very obvious cases. Private pds generally do not hold back and will just charge and refer on to other (expensive) colleagues to further investigate.

It could also be that my neighbour's daughter was a very obvious case (to a pd). The girl was very sociable but her speech was very slurred and no one could understand her, but she obviously had a lot to say. The mum actually thought her daughter's speech was slow because they are in a multi-lingual family, but the pd said no, must investigate and sent her to an audiologist where it was discovered that she only had 20% hearing.

Hearing and vision difficulties can both be misdiagnosed as ADHD and I believe there are many misdiagnosed cases. I'm very happy for you and your child that the specialist you saw did a thorough investigation.

[pingsped]

There are many possible reasons for delayed speech (no speech) & language delay (limited speech, incl unclear speech)


As a therapist, I conduct screening for toddlers (<3 yrs) who display speech and language development associated with global and pervasive developmental delay (GDD and PDD). This group of children needs early intervention as soon as possible.

The rest will probably need yearly or 6mthly review. I usually advise the parents to enrol their child in preschool if I suspect that home environment is \"not stimulating growth\".

Profile of children who fail to \"thrive\" in daily preschool after 3-6 mth
a) emotional factors eg excessive crying, no exploratory behv
b) autism
c) dyspraxia & sensory integration dysfunction (SID) - poor attending skills, easily underwhelmed (excessively withdrawn) or overwhelmed (out of control behv), excessively disruptive play, etc


keywords (if you want to google it) :
play toddler delayed development

Essentially, I look at the nature of a child's play which provides important information about intellectual development.

useful reference articles
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/568339_2
http://www.allaboutbaby.com/infants/preschool_dev.htm

[Audvis]

botakgundul:

deminc:

It is unrealistic to worry about their speech from 0-2.5 because there can be so many developmental differences even the doctors will just tell you to observe

I agree w/ u. My baseline is after 3 yrs old. 0-2.5 yrs old r considered very young & too early to tell. During these ages, they still can grow.

This is provided there are no other more disturbing signs, e.g. drooling, resistance to eat solid foods (which shows lack of control of muscles in jaw/ mouth that are necessary for talking), or signs of autism, e.g. child appears \"lost in his own world\", more interested in looking at spinning toys or fans rather than interacting with people, doesn't respond when his name is being called, hand-flapping, etc). For a whole list of autism symtoms, refer to this:
http://autism.org.sg/resources/articles/FeaturesOfAutism.pdf

The polyclicnic doctor told me as a yardstick, children from 2 years old should be able to say 2 words together. If not, they should be referred to see a specialist.

I have a girl who had speech delay at aged 2, now she is aged 3, she has reached age-appropriate norms for speech. What helped her catch up was intensive speech therapy lesson (at 1 point, we were going 3x per week!), communicating with her in short, simple phrases. As mentioned by another parent earlier, the book \"It Takes Two To Talk\" from the library will teach you strategies how to make your child talk (you need to quickly photocopy because there are usually people reserving this book, which means you can't renew at all).

In general, spend time interacting with your kid rather than let her watch TV or play iphone (not even educational programs). I think there have been research studies that show that even educational programs are not as effective in teaching children, as compared with human interaction. Think about it, human interaction enables the child to explore the world in a concrete, 3D way through all her senses (hearing, vision, touch, smell, taste). Whereas TV is only 2D, and only tap on at most 2 senses. And TV/iphone is very passive, it does not require the child to respond.

[phtthp]

one parent shared that tr Gail from I Creative Learning (ICL) has helped her son overcome speech delay issue. Her son is now reading well.


you may want to approach tr Gail to help your child:-
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10024&start=110

[phtthp]

Oops! sorry, should be on page 17:-

http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10024&start=160

[cnimed]

Audvis:

botakgundul:

[quote=\"deminc\"] It is unrealistic to worry about their speech from 0-2.5 because there can be so many developmental differences even the doctors will just tell you to observe

I agree w/ u. My baseline is after 3 yrs old. 0-2.5 yrs old r considered very young & too early to tell. During these ages, they still can grow.

This is provided there are no other more disturbing signs, e.g. drooling, resistance to eat solid foods (which shows lack of control of muscles in jaw/ mouth that are necessary for talking), or signs of autism). For a whole list of autism symtoms, refer to this:
http://autism.org.sg/resources/articles/FeaturesOfAutism.pdf
[/quote]These are certainly important red flags that need looking into. What I mean is when the child actually speaks is in itself not such a big deal in the early years because there is a wide variation. The red flags you mentioned should be looked into even if the child CAN speak a few words. Instead many people are concerned only about speech and do not pay attention to other red flags.

But agree that human-to-human interaction is very important and educational programmes and Ipad are no substitution for human interaction. In many cases, in the absence of other red flags that you have mentioned, a child may simply not have enough clear \"input\" or a chance for meaningful 2 way interaction.

I have a friend whose 4 yr old was diagnosed as delayed in every domain by 1.5 years. Her home environment was very unstimulating because both parents are working, only grandma and maid at home, grandma anticipated all her needs and did everything for her. After speech therapy, speech and drama, physio etc, mum told me the best \"therapy\" was still a lot of attention and interaction from mum and banning TV. After a few months mum cancelled all the therapies and speech and drama and became a stayhome mum instead. The child is now in primary school and doing well. Totally cannot see any signs of delays.

But also have a friend whose son has moderate speech delay in the form of unclear speech. He needed help from a speech therapist to work with the tongue muscles at aged 5. No drooling or other signs, but inability to enunciate. This is pretty technical and definitely need the expertise of a speech therapist.

A family member also saw a speech therapist for a very short time to work on certain syllables at the age of 6. It took just 10 sessions to iron out the kinks.

[phtthp]

perhaps find out when is the next talk other school also conducting, can attend:-

http://www.anglochineseprimary.net/2011Corres/Supporting_a_Child_with_Learning_Difficulties_by_Dr_Daniel_Fung.pdf