A. Speech Pathologists (SPs) study, diagnose and treat communication disorders, including difficulties with speech, language, fluency and voice.

SPs are called by different names in different parts of the world. For example:

Australia: Speech Pathologist

Canada: Speech-Language Pathologist

New Zealand: Speech-Language Therapist

South Africa: Speech Language Therapist

UK: Speech and Language Therapist

US: Speech-Language Pathologist

If you are in Australia, consult a certified practising member (CPSP) of Speech Pathology Australia

A.

• The therapist needs to be child-friendly: This sounds simple enough, but you can’t take it for granted. If your child isn’t comfortable, he/she will not be able to learn. Thus, watch the therapist interacting with your child. Is she on the floor with him? Is she trying to find out what interests him? Does your child seem to be having fun?
  Does your child seem willing to interact with this therapist? If you can answer yes to these questions, then chances are your child will be ready to learn.
• The therapist needs to be experienced and knowledgeable: A good therapist should know what kind of treatment is best for your child and should appear to know what he/she is talking about. You should also feel comfortable with the amount of experience this therapist has with children similar to yours
• The therapist considers the parent to be an intervention partner: In addition, a good therapist is respectful of the parent and includes the parent in the decision-making process. A parent who feels as if he/she is always being told what to do is not truly a partner

A. The earlier the better if/when you have any concerns.

Even though they are concerned that their child’s speech and language development may be unusual or slower than normal, many parents may hesitate to seek the professional advice of a speech pathologist.

Sometimes this is because they are advised against it by reassuring friends, family and others. But sometimes it is because they think the child is too young to ‘be assessed’.

The fact is, babies or toddlers are never too young for a communication skills assessment. Speech Pathologists see children from infancy.
The very young clients SPs include on their caseloads may have cleft palate, hearing impairment, developmental disability (for example, Down Syndrome) or they may have been identified early as being “at risk”, withdrawn or unresponsive to the communicative attempts of others. Or they may simply be late talkers. The right time to seek SP help is when you, as a parent, are concerned.

A. Many late talkers do “grow out of it”, but many do not. It can be difficult to predict which children will not catch up to their peers.

A list of risk factors has been identified, which suggest that a child is more likely to have continuing language difficulties if they:

• were quiet as an infant; little babbling
• have a history of ear infections
• have a limited number of consonant sounds (e.g. p, b, m, t, d, n, y, k, g, etc.)
• do not link pretend ideas and actions together while playing
• do not imitate (copy) words
• use mostly nouns (names of people, places, things), and few verbs (action words)
• have difficulty playing with peers (social skills)
• have a family history of communication delay, learning or academic difficulties
• have a mild comprehension (understanding) delay for his or her age
• use few gestures to communicate

www.hanen.org

A. If you think your child may be a late talker, it’s never too early to seek help. Difficulty communicating can lead to frustration, anxiety, poor interaction with others and withdrawal.
We know that the earlier we start to help children, the better their outcomes.

You should:

• Consult a speech pathologist about your concerns.
• Have your child’s hearing evaluated – even if you think your child is hearing just fine, it is important to make sure he is hearing sounds at a variety of volumes and pitches. Even slight hearing impairments can cause difficulties with speech and language development.

A. Not all speech pathologists see children, and not all SPs who do see children assess and manage every childhood communication disorder. Some SPs specialise in particular areas, and some are generalists.

A. No, but many individuals are referred.

A. A “Late Talker” is a toddler (between 18-30 months) who has good understanding of language, typically developing play skills, motor skills, thinking skills, and social skills, but has a limited spoken vocabulary for his or her age. The difficulty this group of children have is specifically with spoken or expressive language.

A. Even though a large percentage of these children appear to catch up to their peers by the time they enter school, studies are showing that this group of children do not perform as well as their peers in certain aspects of language use such as language complexity and grammar.

A. Recent research in Australia indicates that 8.5% of 3 year old children experience stuttering. Not all children who start stuttering will continue. As many as 70-75% of children who start to stutter are thought to recover naturally without treatment. Although some children recover from stuttering naturally, the exact rate of recovery and the average time taken to recovery is not known.

It is important to begin treatment of stuttering sometime within 12 months of onset. Few children will have recovered without treatment by then. At present it is not possible to say whether an individual child will recover naturally or will require treatment to begin.

Unfortunately, we cannot yet tell which children have stutters that will resolve without treatment. This means that if another child in your family grew out of stuttering, the next child in the family to stutter may or may not follow the same developmental pathway. There is never any guarantee that children will grow out of it. It is not possible to determine who will experience natural recovery, but adolescents and adults are very unlikely to experience natural recovery (ASRC).