Signs Your Child Needs Speech Therapy

Every child develops communication skills at their own individual pace. So how can you be sure if your child should begin seeing a speech therapist to aid in their communicative development? The earlier you know the signs and can seek help, the more effective speech therapy can be!

Here are some tell tale signs by age:

12-15 Months:

• Only makes a few sounds.
• Not using gestures like, waving or pointing. Has not expressed their first words.

18-24 Months:

• Grunts and points rather than communicate when they want something.
• Not using two-word combinations frequently.
• Leaving ends off words like “si-dow” instead of sit down.

2-4 Years:

• Not putting two- and three-word combinations together.
• Saying fewer than 50 words.
• Mostly unintelligible speech.

4-5 Years:

• Repeating the first sounds of words, like “b-b-b-ball” for “ball.
• Unable to follow classroom directions, like “Draw a circle on your paper around something you eat”.