It is a mandate for every parent to help their children develop language and communication during the early years of their lives. It is a fascinating process for every parent to see their children respond to them by producing sounds or by the show of signs to acknowledge that they understand when they are being engaged in a conversation. However, parents should keep track of these developments to detect when there are delays in the process of language development. There are common signs that every child should demonstrate at every stage for their language developments to be considered normal (Boyle et al., 2011). For children between the ages of 12 months to 18months, these are some of the signs that might help the parents determine when there is a delay in language development: if a child is unable to respond to gestures such as 'bye' signs or do not respond to their names then there are calls for alarm. Children of this should have the ability to utter words such as ‘no’ and ‘yes’, they ought to identify some of their body parts when asked to. As the children grow further to ages between 18months to 30 months, they ought to use words like ‘mommy’ and ‘daddy’; they are supposed to respond to lengthy questions and ability to use many words in their response. By the time a child attain five years every parent is excited to hold a conversation and understand fully what their children are saying (Boyle et al., 2011). They ought to be curious and inquisitive while using adult grammar in their questions and answers. Parents with children faced with these challenges need to seek aid from language development professionals or the pediatrician (Ferguson, Hall, Riley & Moore, 2011).
Speech disorders can be evident in a child when they are facing difficulties to produce speech sounds. This is characterized when a child has lost fluency and often experiencing the interruption in the flow of the sounds they are producing when trying to communicating. In most cases speech disorders may originate when a child has lost the sense of hearing or suffer from deafness. This disorder is usually characterized by stammering or hesitation as the child is unable to use some speech sounds. It is the mandate of every parent to identify these challenges and seek professional intervention (Owens, 2013).
A language disorder refers to the condition experienced by a child when they are facing the difficulty in expressing themselves by saying their needs as well as passing on other vital information. Not only do they have the difficulty in expressing themselves but understanding what they are told is also a major problem. Parents are usually concerned when their children language development lags behind that of other children within their age brackets and this call for evaluation from the professionals. Learning is processes that only take place effectively when there is excellent communication. Therefore, children who experience language disorders are in most cases faced with the challenge of delivering in their academic performances. This is as a result of the inability to communicate fluently with the teachers and their peers in school (Owens, 2013).
These children are faced with the difficulties of reading and writing in addition to pronouncing certain vowels, sentences and words that require changes in intonation. This affects their results after sitting for their end of curriculum tests, therefore, leaving them devastated and unwilling to keep on learning. Parents are faced with a task of continuously monitoring their children from an early age given the fact that signs of language disorders can be manifested in children as young as 18 months (Owens, 2013). There may be a delay in the development of a child’s language for a short period of which might not necessarily result in the child suffering permanently from language disorder in their coming years. However there those common signs that do occur in every stage of a child’s language development that would require the parents to seek further and professional assistance (Ferguson, Hall, Riley & Moore, 2011).
Speech and language pathologists as they are commonly referred to be the options parents with children having speech disorders turn to for professional assistance. These individuals have the capability to distinguish speech disorders and language disorders in children and help them .They work with children suffering from these conditions from a young age teaching them how to move and set certain body organs to produce different sound speeches. This is well known as speech articulation skills (Ferguson, Hall, Riley & Moore, 2011). Speech and language disorders hinder the child’s ability to communicate with their parents as well as their peers; however these language pathologists guarantee that these learn expressive language skills such as gestural symbols whereby gestures interpret to different meanings; a wave of the hand for this instance meaning ‘bye’. Assigning a speech/language therapist to a child experiencing speech and language delays will automatically improve their language development, and this will reflect on how well the child interacts with the parents and their peers (Ferguson, Hall, Riley & Moore, 2011).
References
Boyle, C. A., Boulet, S., Schieve, L. A., Cohen, R. A., Blumberg, S. J., Yeargin-Allsopp, M., & Kogan, M. D. (2011). Trends in the prevalence of developmental disabilities in US children, 1997–2008. Pediatrics, 127(6), 1034-1042.
Ferguson, M. A., Hall, R. L., Riley, A., & Moore, D. R. (2011). Communication, listening, cognitive and speech perception skills in children with auditory processing disorder (APD) or specific language impairment (SLI). Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 54(1), 211-227.
Owens Jr, R. E. (2013). Language disorders: A functional approach to assessment and intervention. Pearson Higher Ed.
