Early Language Development and Therapy
Language is different from speech. When we talk about speech, we mean the sounds of the word, but when we talk about language, we are referring to the words themselves and how they are combined into sentences to create meaning.
​​My child is 0 - 3 years old, what should they be saying?​
Language milestones can be used to determine if a child is on track for their language development. There are a few crucial points that we can use as a guide to decide if therapy should be considered.
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At 8 months - understanding words spoken by their parents
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At 12 months - saying their first words​
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At 18 months - using around 20 words
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At 24 months - using 50 - 200 words and combining 2-3 words in simple sentences
Sometimes very young children struggle with the onset of language development; they may be 18 months old and have very few or no words at all in their repertoire. We would strongly recommend a hearing check and speech pathology referral in these situations.
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If you are uncertain if your child's language development is delayed, we have collated several milestone fact sheets on our home page or you can contact us and a therapist can help determine if an assessment is appropriate.
The Reasearch on Late Talkers
This information has been obtained from research conducted at the Telethon Kids Institute website.
Most children learn language with ease, but this is not the case for all children. 13% of Australian two-year-olds are late to start to talk; this applies to otherwise healthy toddlers who do not meet age expectations for expressive and/or receptive language development.
80% of late talkers catch up by age 7, however, 20% of late talkers have persistent language difficulties.
Boys are more likely to be late talkers than girls at age 2. However, at age 7, a similar ratio of boys and girls have language difficulties.
Most late talkers do not have persistent language difficulties and not all children with language difficulties were late talkers.
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The dilemma is that we cannot predict which children will grow out of late talking, which children will have persistent language difficulties, and which children will start on track and fall behind later in development.
At Fremantle Speech Pathology Services, we can assess your child to determine if a language delay is present and then work with you to develop single words, then short sentences, leading up to mini conversations!
