The first few years of your child’s development are crucial. It’s a period for rapid neurological development and positive support will therefore be essential. If your child struggles with speaking or listening, it can feel like you’re going at a snail’s pace. It feels as though nothing is getting better, and you may be wondering if something more profound is at the root of their lag in Communication skills.  

Communication difficulties can have an effect on learning, behaviour and accessing schools. Researchers say that 81% of children with emotional and behavioural disorders have significant unidentified communication needs. In this article, we will outline how to know if your child’s communication skills are on track, and how to identify child communication delay, which will help you understand whether you might need professional support, such as a speech-language practitioner.

What is communication

Communication is how we interact with individuals. It’s the essence of who we are and how we engage with family, friends, and others. Being able to communicate, aids us to build meaningful relationships, learn, express our needs and wants, and more. Communication can be defined into 2 categories, namely; 

1. Speech: the verbal use of language, formulating different sounds and words
2. Language: the understanding of speech and being understood through verbal, non-verbal and written communication

However, how do we define a communication delay? For speech, a delay may be seen in the ability to use words and phrases, but others find it difficult to understand or follow. Whereas a language delay can be recognised in using words well, but being unable to put two words together. When a child may present a communication delay, many aspects of their development may be affected. 

Did you know that two to three kids per class have a developmental language disorder? This is a Speech and Language Communication Needs (SLCN), which is still underdiagnosed.

Why does it matter? People with a developmental language disorder are six times more likely to suffer from anxiety and three times more likely to have clinical depression. They are also at significant risk of struggling with reading, spelling, and mathematics.

How do I know my child’s communication skills are on track?

There is no one that knows your child better than you do. During the first 3 years of critical development, you may wonder about their communication skills. Both verbal and non-verbal interactions can be early indications of speech and language skills. Observations of speech and language that is most commonly seen through play and interaction are:

• Ability to attend and focus on an object with another, relaying to joint attention
• Utilises eye contact and facial expressions in response to sounds and gestures 
• Plays and engages with daily routine
• Babbles and vocalises

More on communication expected milestones by the year, see here. 

Signs of speech or language delay

• Your child isn’t using gestures by 12 months, including pointing or waving
• Your child prefers to use gestures over verbalisation to communicate by 18 months
• By 18 months, your child may have difficulty imitating sounds and understanding simple verbal instructions
• Your child can only imitate gestures and speech but doesn’t produce words and phrases spontaneously by 2 years
• By 2 years, your child only uses limited sounds and words repeatedly, has difficulty with communicating immediate needs, and doesn’t follow simple instructions
• Has an unusual tone of voice by 2 years, including nasal or raspy sounding
• By 4 years, it is expected that your child is mostly understood by people that know them and by others that don’t

How to identify child communication delay

In the first few months, if your child doesn’t respond to sound, it will be worthwhile to take them for a hearing test. By 7 to 12 months, your child will start to smile and interact with gestures. By 1.5 to 3 years, your child may start putting words together in sentences. If these few interactions are not met, you may want to chat to your specialist for further advice and assessment. Typically, by 3 years, a child will have the ability to produce clear words and understand how to put them together into short sentences. They will also be able to tell simple stories, understand your instructions and interpret non-verbal communication by others. 

Causes for Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)

Genetics and environmental factors

When an individual’s genes have multiple mutations, they may be at high-risk for developing DLD. Although scientists are yet to identify the exact genes that contribute to this leading cause, it is good to know that genes endeavour influence within context. Implying that individuals with a genetic risk in specific environments may have a bigger or smaller likelihood of having DLD. 

As an example, if you imagine two individuals with exactly the same higher genetic risk for DLD, however, one was born at full term and the other prematurely. The individual born prematurely will result in a higher risk, as their environmental time in the womb was less. Bearing in mind that genetics and environment don’t have a single cause, and there is always an element of chance involved. 

The main takeaway from this is that parents and caregivers who believe they are the cause, due to reduced reading or talking, is simply not true. 

Neurobiology

Neurodevelopmental conditions, like DLD, revolves around having differences in brain development. With this in mind, these differences are unlikely to be present in routine brain scans, due to these differences being so subtle. For reference, a few of these differences can include grey matter proportions and different sizes of brain regions. However, with this in mind, scientists still have a lot to learn about children having DLD and their brain develops differently.

If your child may be delayed and you would like support, you’re welcome to book a free 10 minute discovery call with a noala speech professional

Conclusion

Communication is an incredibly important skill for every child and every human. When it’s good, it allows people to understand each other and exchange information. When communication is disrupted, it can also result in feelings of isolation and frustration for all parties involved. So, if your child is struggling with communication, it’s important to keep trying and to recognize that it takes time to develop communication skills, or that sometimes professional support may be required. 

While it’s difficult, it’s also worth keeping in mind that communication can often be improved with patience, determination, and a positive mindset. Communication disorders are complicated, and it’s important to keep in mind that they don’t just “resolve themselves”. With patience, determination, and a positive mindset, communication disorders can often be improved. Every child works at their own pace. If you feel as though your child isn’t improving as quickly as you’d hoped, check in with a professional (such as a speech-language pathologist) first. They might be able to offer some insight into why things are taking longer than expected, and how you can adapt your approach in a more positive direction moving forward.

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