Speech Development

Are you still waiting for your child to say the words "Mama" or "Dada" or string together a few words to form a sentence? As a parent, you want to ensure that your child receives the best start in life, which means learning the vital skills that will help them navigate through childhood and adolescence. But this goal is stifled when their development is delayed and they struggle to learn how to speak or use language as expected.

Early and social interaction skills are essential for every child to get the best start in life. Skills like language, eye contact, and self-regulation are just some of the things your child needs in order to excel - personally and academically! Since the pandemic, both parents and teachers are becoming more concerned about children’s abilities to interact. On top of that, there are delays in referrals to specialists. As early interaction is so important, you are probably thinking that you don’t have the qualifications to make a difference. This is not true!

If you think your child is at risk for language difficulties, the last thing you want to do is wait around. But, it’s scary not to know how to approach such a delicate situation. And the truth is, your fear of the unknown can sometimes be worse than the situation itself. Luckily, the missing piece that will help you and your child overcome the challenges that a speech delay or disorder brings is closer than you think. Yasmin Akhtar, an SLT, is on a mission to help parents understand language development through the power of games.

Research suggests that the first six months of life are the most critical to a child’s development of language skills. For an individual to become sufficiently skilled in any language, they must be exposed to the language as early as possible, preferably before school age.

There isn’t a single parenting book that describes the extent of a parent’s worries. We worry about everything from their health to their happiness to the little scrape on their knee to their future careers. But it’s the signs of developmental delays that really keep us up at night. According to Mencap, there are approximately 351,000 children in the UK with a learning disability. In the US, 17 percent of children have delays in physical, learning, language, or behavior development.

Speech therapy is a practice that assists people with speech and language disorders, or who have trouble swallowing. This audiobook takes you through the role of a speech therapist; the anatomical structures and physiological functions of speech and hearing; phonetics; language development and speech disorders; the structure of language; and career paths in this field.

Do you want to make the most of the little free time you have and feel confident that you are actively helping your child's communication skills in just a few minutes a day, no matter what their underlying challenges are?... Then you have come to the right place!

Is your child not speaking yet? Don't panic! A Chat with the Speech Therapist is here to help. Written by renowned speech-language pathologist Kim Gallo, this book is a must-listen for parents concerned about their smart, late-talking child. Early intervention is crucial. This book explains why and how to access it.

Stories are so powerful that we really should always be looking to include them in any speech that we give. This includes business presentations. However, we need to be careful about how much personal information we include in our stories, because it is possible to include too much.