04/05/2026
When should you be worried about your child's speech ?
Speech sounds develop at different ages, for example, it is typical for a two year old to refer to a 'car' as a 'tar' or for a four year old to refer to a 'rabbit' as a 'wabbit'. But, when you are seeing the following signs in your child, it may be time to seek a professional opinion:
🚩Your child is showing signs of frustration as they are not being understood.
🚩They are 'dropping' or 'omitting' the sound at the start or end of words.
🚩Their speech is significantly more difficult to understand than most children of their age.
What can you do to help?
🧡 If you can't understand what your child is saying, don't pretend to. Instead ask 'Can you show me?', this will help to ease the frustration of being asked to repeat himself.
💚 Repeat what your child has said and say the words correctly e.g. if your child says 'don' (for 'gone') when asked 'Where's Daddy? then you can say 'Oh he's gone, Daddy's gone' and emphasise the 'g' sound so that he can hear how the word should be said.
🩵 Praise your child's attempts to communicate e.g. 'Oh good talking!' or repeating what they have said to let them know that you have understood, thereby increasing their confidence in their communication.
💚 Notice if your child seems to be having difficulty hearing or is picking things up incorrectly, it may be worth having their hearing checked to rule out any hearing issues that may affect speech productions, particularly if they have a history of ear infections.
Next steps:
If you are unsure if your child's speech is age appropriate, contact me on 085 7108559 or duhallowslt@gmail.com for a chat about your child's speech or to arrange an assessment.
Joann 🙂
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