Speech & Language Development for Babies & Toddlers

SPEECH & LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT FOR BABIES AND TODDLERS Although people often think of speech and language as the same thing, the terms actually have very different meanings.

• SPEECH: If your child has trouble with speech, they struggle with the “how-to” of talking—the coordination of the muscles and movements necessary to produce speech.

• LANGUAGE: If your child has trouble with language, he/she struggles with understanding what he/she hears or sees. Your child may struggle to find the right words and/or organize those words in a meaningful way to communicate a message or hold a conversation.

A speech-language pathologist (SLP) is a highly-trained professional who evaluates and treats children and adults who have difficulty with speech or language. An SLP also evaluates and treats children and adults who have difficulty swallowing food or liquid. An SLP will help identify what part of the swallowing process is making it difficult for your child to eat (e.g., chewing, manipulating food with the tongue, coordinating mouth and throat structures and muscles, breathing appropriately while eating).

ABOUT BRIGHTON CENTER: Brighton Center works with children of all abilities and can help ensure your child has the support they need to get developmentally and educationally on track.

Brighton’s team of Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists, Speech Therapists, and Early Intervention Specialists are specially trained to identify the earliest signs of developmental delays and will prepare a comprehensive plan to overcome those delays.

If your child needs support educationally, Brighton offers 2 Nationally Accredited Preschool Centers that will successfully prepare your child for Kindergarten and beyond. For children that are in elementary school and might be struggling, Brighton’s team of education advocates can meet with parents and help them understand the resources their child might be entitled to from the school to get their education on track. All of Brighton’s services and staff work together to ensure that every child has the opportunity to have a successful future!

FIRST WORDS Before a baby even begins making sounds, he/she is watching and listening to the people surrounding him/her. The baby is observing gestures, sounds, facial expressions, actions, and movements. At the age of 3-6 months, babies begin gurgling, cooing, and babbling (i.e., playing with different sounds). They start understanding some words at 6-9 months of age and imitating sounds at 5-10 months. Then finally, as children transition from being “babies” to being “toddlers” at 12-15 months of age, they begin using their first meaningful words. (Common first words include “mama,” “dada,” “hi,” “bye,” “juice,” “milk,” “doggy,” etc.)

WHAT CAN I DO TO MAKE MY BABY/TODDLER TALK? Some toddlers take a little longer to start talking. While you can’t make a baby/toddler talk, there are some things you can do to lay the foundation for him/her to begin using words: • Pay attention when your child makes sounds or uses gestures. Your child may be attempting to communicate with you. When you respond to your child’s attempts at communication, it shows your child that communication is important and helps to obtain his/her wants and needs.

• Imitate your child’s vocalizations, facial expressions, and gestures, then wait for a response.

This shows your child that what he/she is communicating is important and means something to you. It also teaches him/her the back-and-forth pattern of communication.

• Play and interact with your child. When you play with your child, model language for him/ her. The more you interact with your child and model language for him/ her, the more he/ she will learn about words, their meaning, communication, and language.

SPEECH SOUND DEVELOPMENT CHART Developmental Norms of Speech Sounds Note: Horizontal bars indicate the developmental norms of speech sounds according to age. The start of the horizontal bar indicates the age when the speech sound starts to develop whereas the end of the horizontal bar indicates when this speech sound should be mastered.

12 SIGNS YOU CAN USE WITH YOR CHILD A common concern for parents and caregivers is that using sign language will hamper a child’s speech development. Yet, whether a child is pre-verbal, verbal, hearing, or deaf, there are many good reasons to use sign language.

Here are some ways sign language benefits a child, builds vocabulary, increases social skills, increases early literacy skills, increases motor development, and increase length of utterances.

A very complicated and amazing foundation of language skills begins developing at birth.

Children develop certain skills at different times as they move through the early stages of learning language. On the average, children learn to read by age seven, but learning to read is dependent upon their acquisition of a good foundation of skills.

The following list of milestones is the result of current research in the field where studies continue to analyze how and when children learn and begin to present certain language skills. As you look over this list, keep in mind that children vary greatly in how and when they develop and learn these skills. These skills do not follow a concrete order.

From birth to age 3, most babies and toddlers become able to: •

Make cooing, babbling sounds in the crib which gives way to enjoying rhyming and nonsense word games wih a parent or caregiver.

•

Play along in games such as “peek-a-boo” and “pat-a-cake.”

•

Respond to gestures and facial expressions.

•

Associate words they hear frequently with what the words mean.

•

Imitate the tones, rhythms, and sounds that adults use when talking.

•

Handle objects such as board books and alphabet blocks in their play.

•

Look at pictures in books and realize they are symbols of real things.

•

Recognize certain books by their covers.

•

Begin paying attention to specific print such as the first letters of their names.

•

Scribble with a purpose as if writing or drawing something.

•

Produce letter-like forms and scribbles that resemble writing.

•

Ask or demand that adults or others read or write with them.

•

Pretend to read books.

•

Understand how to handle a book.

•

Share books with an adult as a routine part of life.

IF YOUR CHILD IS NOT ABLE TO DO ANY OF THE SKILLS ABOVE, CONTACT BRIGHTON FOR AN EVALUATION BY A SPEECH THERAPIST AT NO COST TO YOUR FAMILY.

14207 Higgins Road, San Antonio, TX 78217 (210) 826-4492 | www.BrightonSA.org