Milestones: How do I know if my child needs speech therapy?

By the age of 1, your child should be able to:

UNDERSTANDING

• Smile when sees you
• Moves eyes in direction of sounds
• Responds to changes in tone of your voice
• Responds to their name
• Pays attention to music
• Enjoys games like peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake
• Listens when spoken to
• Recognizes words for common items (cup, book, shoe, spoon)
• Begins to respond to requests (come here, want more?)
• Responds to ‘no’, ‘wait’ and ‘stop’
• May point to objects or people

TALKING

• Babbling has both long and short groups of sounds (tata upup bibibibi)
• Uses speech or noncrying sounds to get and keep attention
• Uses gestures to communicate (waving, holding arms to be picked up)
• Imitates different speech sounds
• Has 5-10 (or more) consistent words (hi, dog, dada, mama) around first birthday, although sounds may not be clear

PLAY / PRE-VERBAL

• Copies actions that an adult does
• Attempts to copy sounds that an adult makes
• Uses eye contact
• Is able to take turns in games
• Anticipates what will happen next in a game (in games such as round, round the garden and this little piggy)

WARNING SIGNS

• Little or no babbling
• Does not respond to familiar voices
• Shows no recognition of their own name
• Shows little or no recognitions of names of common people objects and action words

By the age of 4 years, your child should be able to:

UNDERSTANDING

• Understand prepositions (front/back, next to)
• Understand concepts (long/tall/short)
• Understand quantity concepts (most/many)
• Understand sequence concepts (first/last)
• Understands ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions
• Recognises colours and shapes
• Follow 3 step instructions (pick up your shoes, put them on and walk to the door)
• Sort pictures/objects into categories

TALKING

• Uses eye contact consistently throughout conversations
• Uses approximately 900-1000 words (or over), in 4-5 word sentences
• Answers why and how questions
• Grammatically correct sentences with a few mistakes
• Uses pronouns (he/she, her/him, his)
• Uses a variety of descriptive words and concepts
• Uses ‘and’ and ‘because’ in sentences
• Sequences and re-tells two-three events in order of occurrence (first we put on our shoes, then we went outside)

SPEECH SOUNDS

Children can be understood by most people. Sounds that are produced correctly:

• p, b, m, w, h, t, d, n,
• k
• g
• f
• l
• sh
• ch
• s

WARNING SIGNS

• People find it difficult to understand your child
• Limited sentences and grammar, including not using correct pronouns
• Unable to give a clear recount or sequence events
• Limited eye contact

YOUR CHILD SHOULD BE ABLE TO:

• Follow instructions to complete all academic activities in the classroom
• Use complex written and oral sentences, including conjunctions (then, until, but)
• Write basic text types (narratives, recount, procedure) and advanced text types (expositions, persuasive texts)
• Demonstrate an understanding of the rules of spelling
• Has a large sight word vocabulary
• Employ strategies to read and spell unfamiliar and longer words
• Read grade level texts fluently and answer comprehension questions

WARNING SIGNS

• Problems creating sentences, using conjunctions (while, before, until, so, but)
• Difficulties expressing themselves in a clear, logical manner
• Difficulties giving instructions
• Reading is not fluent or at the level expected for their age
• Unable to answer questions correctly about texts they have heard or read
• Difficulties constructing text types
• Poor or limited sight word vocabulary, which may lead to disfluent reading
• Reluctant to participate in group activities and discussions
• Displays challenging or sometimes ‘naughty’ behaviour (refusing to participate, disrupting the class)
• Consistently not finishing work and activities in class.
• At home is not able to produce work within an appropriate time period.