Causes and prevention
The most powerful tool in this world is communication!
The SLP solutions
Humans are granted senses to corroborate with other individuals. However, verbal communication does not make the five senses list but is an integral part of coexisting wisely in this world. Oral touch allows for mutual understanding for daily necessities, association, discussion, and convenience.
Babies communicate with their caregivers through crying when hungry or wet. As the baby grows, so do the needs, making it essential for both entities to convey their wants and feelings through actions and speech.
Understanding the needs of a growing baby is inevitable for the adults around him and the developmental milestones. It is difficult for first-time parents to understand or detect signs of an abnormality in a child's developmental pyramid. Reading, speaking with other parents or extended family, and routine checkups with a pediatrician can help with early detection if there is a challenge ahead.
Parents and caregivers need to balance their expectations in mind every child's unique developmental pace. Kids learn at their own pace, some being early talkers but slightly slower at another feat, and vice versa.
Speech Delay
Every individual has a unique formative pace, but if your child has communication issues, the problem could be speech delay. A speech and language delay is when a child does not meet the required communication skills set for a certain age. This developmental problem is faced by 10% of preschool children in the US.
Causes
- loss of hearing
- developmental delay
- cerebral disability
Other causes include:
- Psychosocial deficiency(the child doesn't spend enough time talking with adults).
- Being a twin.
- Autism (a developmental disorder).
- Optional mutism (the child doesn't want to talk).
- Cerebral palsy (a movement disorder caused by brain damage).
Speaking more than one language can also affect speech. A child's brain must work harder to understand and utilize multiple languages. Fluency in one language could sometimes be a challenge for a bilingual child.
Language Delay
Oral communication is a two-stage process. When a child does not reach the required criteria for language development, it's deemed possible that he's suffering from language delay. Language delay is different from speech delay, in which the development of the mechanical and motor aspects of speech production is delayed.
Causes
DysarthriaSometimes, language or speech delay occurs due to an affliction to the muscles or organs that help in producing speech, such as the tongue, larynx, vocal cords, and the surrounding area.
Auditory impairment
Hearing impairment often leads to language impairment. Communication is not possible if there is auditory impairment.
Autism
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder, sometimes presenting language delays. As autism affects social and communication skills, thus curbing language skills.
Several psychosocial issues
These can cause language delays, as well. For example, severe neglect can lead to problems with language development.
Intellectual disorder
Commonly known as ID, this learning difficulty hinders cognitive and social skills, delaying speech, reading, and cognitive abilities. Dyslexia is a type of intellectual disorder.
Childhood Apraxia of Speech
CAS is a condition that prevents a child's brain from producing compound oral movements, thus disabling him from delivering the right sound for a word. Apraxia is a brain disease that hinders a child's ability to create a sequence between syllables, words, and pronunciation.
Preventions
Adults should be aware of their child's developmental milestones. Being aware of a child's progress could prove helpful in further investigation and treatment.
Reading
The key to mental, communication, and comprehension skills lies in how early and how much you read to your child. It develops the mind, sharpens the imagination, and increases a child's vocabulary.
Use correct language
Avoid using baby language, slang, and babbling because children imitate their elders. Calling water 'Wawa' or food 'yum yum' can misguide a child into mispronouncing words.
Self-talk
Speak aloud about your actions, feelings, objects around you because children learn from repetition.
Sign Language
Therapists believe that sign language addition with other techniques bears better results in speech delay. Use flashcards, pictures, and play cards to explain words and signage usage for words.
Ms. Carrie's E-Book: Speech and Language Therapy Guide: Step-By-Step Speech Therapy Activities to Teach Speech and Language Skills At Home or In Therapy. This guide includes detailed information on teaching various speech and language skills, along with worksheets, handouts, sample IEP goals, and data collection sheets.
Screen time
Screentime should be limited for children to a minimum because of adverse effects on eyesight, health, and behavior problems.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends parents place a reasonable limit on entertainment media. Children between the ages of 8 and 18 average 7½ hours of entertainment media per day, according to a 2010 study by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
Like any other disease, early intervention, face-to-face, and online speech therapy, counseling, occupational therapy with a speech pathologist and child psychologist, along with profound patience and keen love by the caregivers, can have encouraging results. In case of physiological deformities like cleft lip or palate, occlusal abnormalities, vocal tract obstruction, and ear canal obstruction, surgery renders an individual with an essential tool, 'COMMUNICATION,' to cope with the world.
