Early detection of any difficulties in your child’s speech can make learning to talk easier and is key to the prevention of many learning and social problems.

To your surprise and delight, your child one day utters his first words: dada, mama and you witness the miracle of language – a complex learning process that involves the brain, ears, vocal apparatus and even hand gestures.  Parents play a key role in their child’s speech development.   

Andrea Acuña, speech therapist at Clínica Bíblica Hospital, explained that by the age of nine months, children are expected to start saying words that make sense such as “water” and “milk”.  By the time they’re a year old, they’re able to put short phrases together such as: “Give me bread”, “I want milk”.  Their vocabulary should be much more extensive at the age of eighteen months.  “If this is not the case, then the child may be experiencing speech difficulties.” 

However, a child that takes slightly longer than others to start talking does not necessarily have a speech or language disorder associated with impaired hearing, psychomotor or neurological retardation.  Lack of stimulation may be the cause.         

“Delayed language development and articulation problems are among the most common disorders and are mostly the result of lack of communication and stimulation at home.  Parents guess what the child wants and don’t read to him.  Adults often use “baby talk” to communicate with children and pronounce words incorrectly.  Let’s treat children lovingly but let’s not distort language.”

Nonetheless, the therapist pointed out that if by the age of two and a half a child’s language skills are not well developed, he should visit a specialist.  When parents do not have a reference point regarding normal child development, the child’s pediatrician and teachers will detect the impairment.  

“Mild cases will require a weekly session over a period of six to 12 months; however, if the disorder is moderate to severe it may take more than a year and require two to three sessions per week.  Parents play a key role in stimulating language development and therefore, also play an important role in solving any language impairment, which if left unattended in a timely manner can lead to learning and social difficulties.”

Lic. Andrea Acuña
Speech and Voice Therapist
Clínica Bíblica Hospital
Tel.: 2522-1000