AN OVERVIEW OF SPEECH AND

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
 Agenda

 Background to speech and language therapy

 What is communication?
 Where the breakdown can occur
 Speech and Language Therapy Input
 Questions and Answers
 Background
What does a Speech and Language Therapist do?
 A Speech and Language Therapist is a person trained to work
with people of any age with communication or swallowing
difficulties.
 We are trained to deal with neonates up to elderly
 This may include:
 Assessment
 Diagnosis
 Treatment
 Pre-referral Work and Health Education
 What is Communication?

What do speech and language therapists consider?

Where can the
breakdown occur?
Listening
 Attention

STAGE 1 – 1ST yr: Period of extreme distractibility

STAGE 2 – 2nd yr: The child can concentrate for some time on a
concrete task of his own choosing
STAGE 3 – 3rd yr: Attention is single channelled, but more flexible
STAGE 4 – 4th yr: Child can control his own attention focus
STAGE 5 – 5th yr: The child’s attention becomes two channelled
STAGE 6 – 6th yr: Integrated attention is well established and well
sustained
 Language

 STAGE 1: DISCOVERER (birth to 8 months)

The infant goes from communicating reflexively to becoming really interested in

others and wanting attention. She/he does not yet know how to send messages
directly to another person to get what she/he wants.

 STAGE 2: COMMUNICATOR (8 to 13 months)

The infant sends purposeful messages directly to others using a combination of

eye gaze, facial expressions, sounds and gestures. She becomes very sociable.

 STAGE 3: FIRST WORDS USER (12 to 18 months)

The infant cracks the language code and begins to use single words.
 STAGE 4: COMBINER (18 to 24 months)

The child demonstrates a burst in vocabulary and begins to combine words.

She also starts to take more turns in conversation

 STAGE 5: EARLY SENTENCE USER (2 to 3 years)

The child progresses from using two-word combinations to five-word

sentences and can now hold short conversations

 STAGE 6: LATER SENTENCE USER (3 to 5 years)

The child uses long, complex sentences and holds conversations
 Speech Development
50% children 90% children

All common vowel sounds 1.5yrs – 2yrs 3yrs

p, b, t, d, m, n, w 1.5yrs – 2yrs 3yrs

k, g, f, h, y as in ‘yet’ 2.5yrs – 3yrs 4yrs

s, ing as in ‘ring’ 2.5yrs – 3yrs 5yrs

l 3yrs – 3.5yrs 6yrs

sh as in ‘shoe’, ch as in ‘chin’, j 3.5yrs – 4.5yrs 6yrs
as in ‘joke’, z, v
r, th as in ‘thin’, voiced th as in 4.5yrs – 5yrs 7yrs
‘there’
Where there are 2 sounds at the beginning of a word, eg st, sn, br, fl, these
take longer to develop. Often not before 5yrs old
Speech and Language
Therapy Input
 Who Should I Refer?

Not just the disorder but how this impacts on the individual
child and family

 How does this affect the child’s development in everyday life?

 What does this stop the child/family doing?

 How does this make the child/family feel?

 General Advice

 In Greater Glasgow give Helpline number to parents

 In all situations, asking children to repeat what they are

saying is likely to increase stress. Advise parents not to
pressure the child into repeating or speaking to people. Listen
to WHAT the child is communicating not HOW

 Consider referring to audiology if any concerns about hearing.

 Consider involving other services eg CDC if any concerns

regarding social interaction.
 Bilingual Families

Where there are 2 (or more) languages being spoken…..

o Never advise giving up mother tongue

o The adults should be consistent with the languages, try not to

mix them

o SLT would be involved if child has problems in all languages, not

just learning English