Ten Signs your Preschooler will Benefit from Speech Therapy
As Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) we often receive many questions concerning preschool language and speech development. It tends to be a hard age for parents to determine if errors are developmentally appropriate or if their child may need extra help. Here are top ten points to consider for children between the ages of 3 to 4 years:
Is your child:
- Distorting vowel sounds such as saying ‘moo’ instead of ‘mow’ or ‘key’ instead of ‘kay’?
- Utilizing mostly one or two phrases instead of longer phrases and sentences?
- Confusing pronoun gender such as ‘he hit me’ when referring to his sister or “me did it!” when referring to themselves?
- Answering questions by repeating part of the question instead of answering with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response.
- Consistently omitting the end of words such as saying ‘ca’ for ‘cat’?
- Omitting plurals such as “block for ‘blocks’ or ‘book for books’ when referring to more than one?
- Unable to answer basic ‘wh’ questions such as ‘Who is that?”, ‘What is your dolls name?’, ‘Where is your blue truck?’
- Have limited vocabulary or experiences difficulty recalling names for objects/toys as well as over-utilizing ‘it’, ‘that’ or ‘thing’?
- Have difficulty following simple directions or understanding prepositions such as ‘under’, ‘on’, ‘over’, ‘in’ or ‘out’?
- Understood by adults less than 75% of the time?
If you find yourself answering ‘yes’ to some of these questions it may be a good opportunity to speak to your Pediatrician or SLP to determine if a speech-language evaluation may be appropriate for your child. Speech Language Pathologists work directly with children, their parents and teachers to develop an appropriate treatment plan. Preschool language development is crucial for future academic success and its never to early to provide them with the skills to help them succeed !