Speech and language difficulties in children can result from a variety of causes including stroke, brain injury or deterioration, developmental delays or disorders, learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, cleft palate, mental retardation, hearing loss, or emotional problems. It is very essential to know the fact that developmental language deficits do not disappear with age. These disabilities develop into permanent deficiencies with severe long term consequences such as problems at school (reading, writing and spellings), difficulties to understand tasks with language related contexts, behavioral abnormalities and emotional problems. The only solution to this problem is to start intervention on time. Finding speech delay therapy in Kolkata is not a tough ask now as our team of professionals is ready to provide you the same. Before addressing this issue any further let us look into the Normal Development of Speech and Language because knowing what’s “normal” and what’s not in speech and language development can help parents to figure out if they should be concerned or if their child is right on schedule: UNDERSTANDING NORMAL SPEECH AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT Age of Child’s Typical Language Development 6 Months Vocalization with intonation

Responds to his name

Responds to human voices without visual cues by turning his head and eyes

Responds appropriately to friendly and angry tones 12 Months Uses one or more words with meaning (this may be a fragment of a word)

Understands simple instructions, especially if vocal or physical cues are given

Practices inflection

Is aware of the social value of speech 18 Months Has vocabulary of approximately 5-20 words

Vocabulary made up chiefly of nouns

Some echolalia (repeating a word or phrase over and over)

Much jargon with emotional content

Is able to follow simple commands 24 Months Can name a number of objects common to his surroundings

Is able to use at least two prepositions, usually chosen from the following: in, on, under

Combines words into a short sentence-largely noun-verb combinations (mean) length of

sentences is given as 1.2 words

Approximately 2/3 of what child says should be intelligible

Vocabulary of approximately 150-300 words

Rhythm and fluency often poor

Volume and pitch of voice not yet well-controlled

Can use two pronouns correctly: I, me, you, although me and I are often confused

My and mine are beginning to emerge

Responds to such commands as “show me your eyes (nose, mouth, hair)” 36 Months Use pronouns I, you, me correctly

Is using some plurals and past tenses

Knows at least three prepositions, usually in, on, under

Knows chief parts of body and should be able to indicate these if not name

Handles three word sentences easily

Has in the neighborhood of 900-1000 words

About 90% of what child says should be intelligible

Verbs begin to predominate

Understands most simple questions dealing with his environment and activities

Relates his experiences so that they can be followed with reason

Able to reason out such questions as “what must you do when you are sleepy, hungry, cool, or thirsty?”

Should be able to give his sex, name, age

Should not be expected to answer all questions even though he understands what is expected 48 Months Knows names of familiar animals



Can use at least four prepositions or can demonstrate his understanding of their meaning when



given commands



Names common objects in picture books or magazines



Knows one or more colors



Can repeat 4 digits when they are given slowly



Can usually repeat words of four syllables



Demonstrates understanding of over and under



Has most vowels and diphthongs and the consonants p, b, m, w, n well established Often indulges in make-believe Extensive verbalization as he carries out activities

Understands such concepts as longer, larger, when a contrast is presented

Readily follows simple commands even though the stimulus objects are not in sight

Much repetition of words, phrases, syllables, and even sounds 60 Months Can use many descriptive words spontaneously-both adjectives and adverbs

Knows common opposites: big-little, hard-soft, heave-light, etc

Has number concepts of 4 or more

Can count to ten

Speech should be completely intelligible, in spite of articulation problems

Should have all vowels and the consonants, m, p, b, h, w, k, g, t, d, n, ng, y (yellow)

Should be able to repeat sentences as long as nine words

Should be able to define common objects in terms of use (hat, shoe, chair)

Should be able to follow three commands given without interruptions

Should know his age

Should have simple time concepts: morning, afternoon, night, day, later, after, while tomorrow, yesterday, today

Should be using fairly long sentences and should use some compound and some complex sentences

Speech on the whole should be grammatically correct