How can I tell if my child isn't ready to talk yet?
Pre-language skills are paramount to building a strong foundation for spoken language It can be concerning when your little one isn’t yet talking or even babbling as much as other kids their age. Though all children develop differently and at different rates, there are some communication milestones and benchmarks we can use as a framework for tracking a child’s communication development.
Having an idea of what a “typical” 12 month, 18 month, or 24 month old is understanding and how they’re communicating can help inform a parent on when is an appropriate time to reach out to a specialist for evaluation or a professional opinion.
But knowing when and how to reach out is tricky. We’ve all heard those anecdotes, “My mother in law says my husband didn’t talk until he was 3 and he turned out fine.” And while this is true for some people, it’s more commonly the exception to the rule.
The amount of development that happens in the first 3 years of life encourages us to not take that chance with our little ones. Any speech-language pathologist you talk to will tell you, if you’re worried there’s a delay, trust your intuition and at least get an evaluation. After all, evaluation helps give a baseline to measure progress and informs us where the child is falling on the developmental milestone chart. Often there are other environmental or physical factors that are inhibiting a child from learning that we aren’t aware of. These can be some fluid in the middle ear (yes, even without an ear infection) which are making sounds and words muffled, or the presence of a TV in the background throughout the day. Though they may not be interested or paying attention to CNN, their ability to ignore it and attend to what their parent is saying is most definitely diminished.
Let’s get into the real good stuff… those early signs that a child' isn’t ready to talk, and the problems that can occur as a result.
If your child is not yet ready to talk, they might not…
Play with sounds or babble often. Babbling has stages. Read all about them HERE.
Respond to social interactions such as ticking, baby talk, or silly faces, with a smile.
Maintain eye contact, or demonstrate fleeting eye contact with a quick look before looking away.
Imitate non-speech actions like facial expressions or gestures of clapping or pointing.
Gain attention of an adult through the use of sound. This can be shouting, or even just vocalizing.
Not show the ability to discriminate between a friendly and angry voice by responding differently.
Not yet showing bringing you objects to show them to you, not just request help.
Present different vocalizations dependent on their mood. Such as vocalizing with a whine or grunt to express frustration, laughing when happy, crying when hungry or tired.
Enjoying interacting with others during play.
If you’re worried about any of these skills in your child, I strongly encourage you to reach out for a consultation or evaluation. Evaluations over tele-therapy have been going wonderful, and I still have a few spots open in my weekly schedule, so I’d love to meet and speak with you.