Speech, Interrupted

Speaking disorders in children are rooted in physiological limitations, and the nature of their home environment. We bring you valuable insights from experts on how you can identify and navigate your infant’s communication hurdles smoothly.

- Rajashree Balaram

EVERY NEW PARENT eagerly looks forward to the boundless joys of baby talk—the cooing, the gurgling, the babbling. Despite their general incoherence, these sounds signal a major milestone in your child’s life.

But what if these sounds don’t make their presence felt? Speech disorders in children can often put parents through a perplexing cycle of emotions. But the silver lining is that young parents today are also more aware of speech disorders and, therefore, stand a better chance of seeking early intervention for their kids.

when it’s not okay

“There are late bloomers who take their own time with walking and talking, and manage wonderfully well without any of these delays having any implications on their future academic or professional success,” says Tezpur-based speech language pathologist Pratiksha Gupta. “But the signs of speech and language disorders are all too obvious,” says Gupta, who is also the founder of the pioneering speech therapy app Speech Doctor. “The top five signs that your child needs speech therapy are: When she is not engaging/socialising with you by 1 year; when he is not producing many speech sounds by 18 months; when she is unable to join two words together by the age of 2 years; when his words are not intelligible or clear to strangers by 2.6 years; when she has difficulty imitating or producing different sounds by the age of 2.6 to 4 years,” she explains.

what is actually a communication problem?

Though speech disorder is used as a loose label to describe the problem, the correct term is a communication disorder, which could be rooted in either speech or language or other abnormalities.