When my son started kindy, we were told he needed help with his speech. We didn’t notice,new always understood him fine. Was a shock to hear

Thanks for shar

All good advice – often first step is G.P. who can help make useful referrals.

so at the start of this i article i wasnt worried then i was worried then i wasnt again and now i’m just confused…. fuck

Have you had your child’s hearing checked at all???? I have heard of more than one child who has barely said a word and was going to be taken him/her to a speech therapist.
One little boy was found to be deaf in one ear and a surgeon put grommets in his ear/s. They come outon their own when they have done their job. He little boy had what is called “glue ear”. Now he never stops talking. The tubes in his ears may bent (mine are – one worse than the other so I can hear better in one ear than the other). I’m not sure what the remedy is for that as they don’t want to do anything unless mine gets worse. I only discovered it because when I retired and no longer needed to write things down I started holding the phone receiver to my other ear. Your child could have an ear infection and not complained about it. I know a young girl who had a head MRI because another unrelated medical issue. It was discovered she had an inner ear infection which can be seen by normal medical ear checks. I know a boy who had an MRI and they discovered his problem too – the same. His temperature would occasionally rise so high that he would lose consciousness.

It’s a real shame that there aren’t more publicly funded speech pathology centres so taht all kids can get the help they need. In our area, the waiting list for the public service is at least 12 months – that is a long time for a child who needs help with speech development, and such a long delay in support could have lifelong consequences.

Good to know…my child often mixes up words and peoples names for example she calls her friend Evelyn “Elevyn” and milk “Lilk” she is two and a half and I have been hoping she will grow out of it. We just keep repeating the correct pronunciation of the word but I must dammit quite often I get mixed up too and start saying her words….

I like how she said to follow your gut instinct.

I’m a bit obsessed with this topic at the moment, as my kids are great communicators, but have trouble with a few particular sounds. I’ve been told they should still grow out of it, but it can be difficult to know what is just normal development and what is a potential problem that may endure.

A frustrating situation for the child and the parents no doubt.

Very interesting article especially the bit about ‘ 41-75% of Australian preschoolers who have early language delays still experience reading difficulties at the age of eight?” Thanks for the article.

Thanks for this article great read.

Hopefully my sons speech would develop well as he grows up!

thankfully I have never had to deal with stuttering, even though I did as a child

My four-year old still says words like hopstible when talking about the hospital, but none of her medical team has ever voiced a concern, even though I have asked them… They always say ‘wait a little longer’ but we are moving interstate soon, and I planned on looking up a speech therapist when we get there, this made me sure to do it!

normal to me is, as long as they start to talk they are fnine

mine is only two (a couple of weeks off actually) and we get a lot of comments about her not talking yet – she is making words (not sentences yet) and lots of sounds though.

thankyou i like advice about things to watch because sometimes parents response much the opposite like individuality vs an actual treatable issue

Even with speech therapy intervention since just before he turned two our youngest little guy struggles with literacy. 🙁

Very interesting and useful information. I know a child that these sympton fit perfectly.