Delayed speech in toddlers

Delayed speech in toddlers

According to childhood education research, speech disorders in toddlers (especially delayed speech in toddlers) are a little common at some times of their lives. But most of them can successfully come over that. Yet, speech disorders in toddlers will continue with others. Communication disorders include speech disorders and language disorders. Delayed speech in toddlers is what we are going to talk about, delayed speech symptoms, causes of delayed speech in toddlers and speech delay therapy.

Delayed speech symptoms in toddlers

To know exactly what are delayed speech symptoms in toddlers we have to know what is normal about speech developing for them:

-Around 9 months of babies age they begin to put tones together, to make words like "mama" and "baba" but without meaning anything by these words.
And before they get to their first year of old they will have attention to some special words like (bottle, teddy… etc.)

-Before 15 month they begin to imitate sounds and words modeled by family members, and typically say one or more words like "baby" and "ball." they should also be able to understand and follow easy one-step orders ("sit down", "stand up" for example).
They mostly get 18 month with an average of 20 word

-By age 2, toddlers start to make simple sentences, like "baby sleeping" or "mummy beautiful." They also should be able to identify many objects, like some body parts, and also follow two-step orders ("Please bring the toy and give it to me").

-From 2 to 3 years toddlers will increase their vocabulary to too many words to count, and they should combine three or more words into sentences.
Their understanding ability also should increase they will start understanding directions and places "put this on the table" or "bring it from under the bed." They also should identify colors, description, and opposites.

So any delay in the normal developing signs must make you worry, and must be considered and not ignored.

Causes of delayed speech in toddlers

-Mental retardation: more than 50 percent of cases of delayed speech in toddlers are caused by the Mental retardation. A mentally retarded child shows language delay in addition to delayed auditory comprehension and delayed use of signs. In general, the more severe the mental retardation, the slower the developing of communication skills by speech.

-Hearing loss: the earlier hearing loss is discovered, the easier delayed speech could be treated.
Hearing loss at an early time of childhood development may cause serious speech delay. So parents should really pay attention to their children's response to various sounds.

-Maturation delay: Maturation delay (developmental language delay) causes a very big percentage of toddlers with delayed speech. Delay occurs in the developing of the central neurological process that is needed to produce speech. And it is more common in boys, especially with family history. These children usually have normal speech development by the age of school entry.

-Expressive language disorder: In this case, toddlers have no problems in their intelligence, hearing, emotional relationships and articulation skills, they just fail to develop the use of speech at the usual age. They have a dysfunction in the brain that causes an inability to translate ideas into speech. they may use nods and signs to complete their verbal expression. these kind of toddlers need active intervention. Because this disorder is not self-correcting.

-Psycho-social deprivation:  whether it was Physical or social deprivation, it has a negative effect on speech development.

-Autism: Autism is a developmental disorder, which is based on neurological factors; and it is diagnosed by delayed and deviant language development, failure to develop the ability to communicate with others. Autistic toddlers, in general, can't make eye contact, and don't respond to hugging and other love expressions.

-Cerebral palsy: Delayed speech in toddlers with cerebral palsy is common. Cause they causes many factors that can cause, alone or in combination, speech delay: hearing loss, incoordination or spasticity of the muscles of the tongue, mental retardation or a defect in the cerebral cortex.

What to do for the delayed speech in toddlers

-for the Less Serious delayed speech in toddlers:

Here we are talking about toddlers who don't have problems in the function of their muscles or difficulties in their motor skills, delayed speech of those is less serious and can often be treated by working with a speech pathologist. that Often need a lot of practice speaking.
childhood education specialists see that toddlers that have few sound problems can have therapy for some months depending on the toddler himself, but those who have many handicaps could take a long time in therapy

-for the more Serious delayed speech in toddlers:

Toddlers that have congenital disorders which effect the muscles or the ability of speech might be at risk for having a more serious speech problem like childhood dysarthria and childhood apraxia of speech, Children with autism also tend to have childhood apraxia in their speaking.

At last, delayed speech is a very serious problem in general, could be easily solved for some toddlers or at least developed for others. So, trust your instincts as a parent. If something seems wrong to you, don't ignore it. After all, you know your toddler best. Talk to the specialist if your toddler shows any sign of delayed speech in toddlers.