FAQ's

Typically, children begin using single words at age 1, two-word phrases by age 2 and three-word phrases by age 3. There could be a variety of reasons why this is not happening. While 70-80% of late talkers will outgrow an expressive language ONLY delay, 20-30% will not! The 20-30% that do not catch up will have persistent language delays and difficulty with reading and writing when they get to school.

If your child is not meeting or slowly meeting speech and language milestones, is at risk for a speech/language disorder due to the presence of another condition (i.e. ASD, Down Sydnrome), or if there is a family history of speech and language disorders then a comprehensive evaluation may be needed. We offer free phone consultations to learn more about your child and determine whether an evaluation may be needed.

A child should be 100% intelligible to unfamiliar listeners by age 4. For younger children, unfamiliar listeners should be able to understand approximately 25% by age 1, 50% by age 2 and 75% by age 3.

Of course! It is important for parents to participate in their child’s therapy for success over time. This is one of the many benefits to receiving speech and language services in your own home. If your child is seen at home, participation may include in-room therapy participation as well as homework activities. If your child is seen at their school/daycare, participation may include a daily communication log as well as homework activities.

You want to have a good understanding of what your child’s currect communication level is (preverbal, single word communicator, phrase or sentence level communicator, etc.) so you best how to model at home. Once that is determined, here are three fantastic ways to encourage language development at home.

1. Self-talk: Narrate what you are doing to your child. “Mommy is washing the dishes’ or “Daddy is cutting an apple”. This is going to help your child connect words with actions and objects.
2. Parallel-talk: This is where you narrate what your child is doing. For example, if your child is playing with blocks you might say “You’re building a tower.” “Wow! What a tall tower!”
3. Expansion: This is where you will expand on the language your child is already using. If a child is playing with a car and says “car” you might say “the car goes fast” “red car” or “I love cars”