Speech and language
For parents who are are curious or concerned about their child's development and use of language.
The most important thing to know is that all children develop at different rates, and some who are quick at one thing may be slow at another. This is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about. But language and speech delays can be hard to spot and should be treated as soon as possible. Using and understanding language is very important for children's social development as well as their education, and when help is available for children with difficulties it's foolish and damaging to the child to ignore it. While some children do grow out of these problems some will not, and even the ones that do can suffer socially and educationally from the delay.
To begin with, what is "normal"? These development charts for children from newborn to 3 years old (from the babycenter.com site) are especially good because they show the difference in abilities between normal children of the same age. For contrast, here we have the criteria that our local Speech and Language Therapy clinic use to decide whether a child needs to be referred to them for help. Our Milestones page has year-by-year notes on what you can expect your child to be capable of and how you can encourage them.
If your child seems consistently below average in their use of speech, or you've noticed something you're worried about, the best thing to do first is to speak to the nursery staff and see if they've noticed the same pattern of delays - some children are chatty in class but quiet at home (and vice versa, of course). If they agree that your child may be having trouble then the next step is to speak to your GP or health visitor. Usually they'll arrange a hearing test first, since many problems in acquiring language are due to hearing difficulties - something as simple and easily treated as an ear infection can affect a child's hearing enough to slow down their learning.
The contacts page has links and contact numbers for a number of organisations that can offer advice and help if your child does have a problem; our pages on stammering, deafness and glue ear might also be useful. We have a page of suggested books as well. We've also added a few pages on childhood language development that you might like to browse through. We've tried to make it as understandable and jargon-free as possible; please tell us what you think!
Please note: the usual Internet caveats apply to the advice on this site. We've done our best to be accurate but we're not medically trained so don't take anything we've written as gospel. It's useful advice and information, we hope, but don't hesitate to see your doctor if you have any concerns.
Research by Rachel Carthy