SLPs KNOW BEST
SLPs are the professionals that spent many years studying language and cognition; and although children develop at their own pace, SLPs know exactly which milestones should be reached by a specific age. When these milestones are not reached, this can be a cause for concern that only a trained professional can evaluate. Therefore, no age is too early to meet with a SLP for an evaluation of your child’s language skills in order to decide if an intervention plan is needed.
Because expressive language delay, is a symptom found in many conditions, children who are slow to talk are a heterogeneous group. Language delay is often secondary to another disorder (for example, hearing loss, autism spectrum disorder, neurological disorder) (Whitehurst and Fischel, 1994). Therefore, a language evaluation early on, other than identify at risk children for language delays or disorders it can serve an important public health function by identifying children whose expressive delay is secondary to another disorder.
What’s next?
You have reached out to a SLP to receive an evaluation for your child. Will that always result in individualized intervention? Depending on the needs of the child, the SLP will decide the course of action. Sometimes it involves, a family-guided intervention approach where care givers are trained by the SLP to incorporate teaching and learning within a variety of daily routines and activities within the child’s and family’s lives. At Beyond Speech we run Family-Guided Intervention workshops throughout the year, in order to help parents maximize the child’s potential at home. Sometimes the plan of action might require the child to join a small treatment group lead by a SLP while the caregivers follow a program at home. Other times it might require individual therapy delivered by the SLP, while other times the treatment plan might involve a combination of different approaches.
The SLP will take into consideration all the information gathered from the evaluation in order to decide the best course of action for the client.
For language development and what to expect at different ages, join us on June 13th, 2018 to get a full inside to the language developmental milestones of children 0-6 years of age. For more information refer to our website.
Dr. Marianna Christodoulou Devledian, PhD, CCC-SLP
References:
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Thal, D. (2005a). Early detection of risk for language impairment: What are the best strategies. Paper presented at the Congress on Language and Speech Disorders, Urbino, Italy.
Thal, D.(2005b). Early cietecdon of risk/or laWage !mpairment; What are fhe best strategies? Paper presented at the annual convention of the American Speech, Language, and Hearing Association, San Diego, CA.
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Whitehurst G, Fischel J. 1994. Early developmental language delay: what, if anything, should the clinician do about it? Jounral of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 35, 613-648.