The therapist will perform a physical exam of your child's face and mouth, evaluate your child's ability to communicate, speak, speak clearly, express his thoughts, follow instructions, interact with others, and understand the things that are being said to him. There are an approximate number of words that children of a given age can say. Your child may only slowly develop language skills and could benefit from working with a speech therapist.
Speech therapy
may be recommended for children who fall into this category, but some therapists may suggest a “wait and see what happens” approach, depending on the child's age and the extent of the delay.It's usually a pleasant, informal environment, and the speech-language pathologist (SLP) can even have everyone sit on the rug. To begin speech therapy, your toddler will need a speech and language evaluation to document that he has been delayed and that he would benefit from speech therapy sessions. However, if they're constantly quiet at social gatherings or if they have trouble expressing themselves, you might want to consider taking them to speech therapy for young children. At this age, it's hard to tell if they're talking late because they need extra help learning how to choose and use words, or if something is really going on with their speech production skills (sound development).
Speech homework with young children focuses on making small adjustments throughout the day to develop your child's communication skills. Speech therapists are trained professionals who help children and adults with different speech-related problems. You don't need to be a speech therapist to encourage speech and language development with your children. A pediatric speech therapist who works with young children understands that young children need to move to learn.
After the initial evaluation (learn about what to expect during the evaluation process here), your speech therapist will give you a full view of your toddler's communication skills and tell you if you think your child would benefit from therapy. However, there are some resources you can use at home to better understand if your child might need speech therapy before you go to a speech therapy evaluation. These suggestions can be given to work on some things while you wait to start speech therapy; these are usually things you can start right away. His clinical experience includes early intervention, language delays, and apraxia of speech in young children.
