Developmental Delays

When to be concerned about your child? (addressing milestones, red flags etc)

Children are in the process of learning how to talk, and they do this by exploring how to utilise their tongue, teeth, and lips to make new sounds, as well as discovering how to put words together to make sentences. It’s like learning to walk; they are a bit wobbly at first and might make mistakes, but practise develops the skill. At first, your toddler may not be clear or might use only a few words but after practise, their speech should improve.

Sometimes it is hard to know when to get help. Many parents are reassured by well meaning friends who may say ‘they’re just a late talker’ or ‘my youngest did that too but now he’s fine’. However, all of this advice can make it difficult for parents to know what skills to look for and when to seek professional intervention.

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It is worth contacting a speech pathologist if:

  • your 12-month-old is not pointing or waving,
  • your 18-month-old uses more gestures than vocalisations to communicate and struggles to understand simple requests,
  • your 2-year-old cannot follow simple directions or can only imitate speech rather than produce them spontaneously.

Typically parents and caregivers should understand 50% of a child’s speech at 2 years and 75% of it at 3 years. By 4 years old a child should be understood by others, even if they are not familiar with the child.

Here is a sheet from Speech Pathology Australia outlining the milestones for children from 12 months to 5 years. (Click to enlarge)

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