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Questions & Answers - Speech & Language Concerns
I have a 16 month old child who's pediatrician has concerns he may
be behind on his speech. I will be the first to admit that TV is often a
part of his routine and he does watch probably way too much. They are
always ones that are informational and supposed to be helpful for
children to learn. He, in addition to having this on the TV, has many
toys/puzzles/books, etc., which he plays with while watching his
favorite Dora or Barney show.
At 16 months, he doesn't point, doesn't talk but is quite vocal
and makes lots of noises. He eats well and runs all over the place
and climbs stairs/couch. He seems to have difficulty letting us know
what he wants obviously as he cannot speak words yet and doesn't
understand how to show me what he wants. Is this something to be
quite concerned about and is there possibilities of a developmental
lag or even disability?
You can check out our web page on
speech and language skills at this link to see what skills a
child should have by age 18 months.
From your description, if your son is only making noises, not
actively babbling a variety of consonant-vowel combinations, not
saying word approximations such as "ba" consistently for "ball", not
saying mama or dada specifically, not attempting to imitate speech
sounds you make and the biggest red flag, not pointing or gesturing
to indicate wants or needs, I would agree with your pediatrician
that he is a bit behind in his expressive speech development. It is
better to be pro-active and since early intervention is available, I
would take advantage of scheduling a speech evaluation for your son
so that if he is tested and found to have a delay he can begin
receiving speech therapy now rather than later.
The TV debate is ongoing, but as an educator I would say that
less TV is better, even if you are letting him watch only
educational shows. He will learn much more from his toys, books and
puzzles and simply from interacting with you than he ever will from
TV. Children at this age do not have to ability to attend to two
simultaneous tasks or actively switch back and forth from attending
to one task and another easily...so if he is watching TV while
playing with toys, chances are he's paying more attention to the
fast paced colorful TV show than his toys. Sitting down and playing
with him with his toys is the most beneficial thing you can do. Keep
in mind that for structured tasks like puzzles and shape sorters he
will only have an attention span of about 3 minutes per toy and that
is ok, but with your guidance he should be able to stick with a task
for about 3 minutes or more before switching to another toy.
Music & finger plays are also a nice way to play with kids and
also to enhance language...sing songs like Wheels on the Bus and
Itsy Bitsy Spider. You can also bounce him on a ball and make fun
sounds and silly sounds and encourage him to repeat you...as you
bounce him say "ba, ba, ba" and see if he says it back or "ma, ma
ma" etc. While playing encourage fun environmental sounds like "wheeeee",
"ding dong", "beep beep", "boo", "uh oh". Also work on animal sounds
with toys and books. Kids will sometimes be more apt to repeat and
imitate these fun sounds before they start saying actual nouns such
as "ball, cup, dog". Also, encourage your son to discontinue the
bottle if he is still on it and move toward using a straw cup (not a
sipper) which encourages more mature oral motor movements and is
better for speech development than a bottle or sipper spout cup. You
can also work on blowing bubbles with your son to strengthen oral
motor muscles needed for speech. Play with a mirror, and let him
look at himself, make silly faces, stick out your tongue and move it
from side to side and see if he can imitate you.
This is a resource in your area that you may wish to call for
more information on early intervention services:
Wayne County Early Intervention
1519 Nye Rd # 200, Lyons, NY 14489-9112 (315) 946-7262
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Questions & Answers - Speech & Language Concerns
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