This is a great resource that has been put together by Speech Pathology Australia – a communication milestones checklist (you may also have seen a copy of it in the Sure Start Health waiting room and in my office). It provides a thorough list of the communication milestones for children between the ages of 12 months and five years.

I highly recommend having a look at it to help you gauge how your child is tracking and if there is anything you would like to discuss about your child’s speech and language development, either Allie or I would be very happy to talk to you.

You can call us on 8272 2862.

Lisa Mathers, Speech Pathologist

Children of all ages can have difficulties with social skills.  These can begin at a young age and take the form of difficulties taking turns, using eye contact, being aware of personal space, managing winning and losing or interacting with and responding to peers.

In older children social skill difficulties can make it harder for them to make friends, know what is appropriate to say to others, understand others’ perspectives (empathy), talk about a variety of topics, manage unpredictable comments or behaviours from others and understand sarcasm and idioms.  Having difficulties with these can result in a child struggling to make and maintain strong friendships which may make them feel socially isolated.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other communication difficulties may have challenges with social skills.

Speech Pathologists work to support children with social skills difficulties by teaching them appropriate social skills, encouraging use of these skills, role playing and working through different scenarios together.  These can be general skills and scenarios or tailored to scenarios a child has experienced and needs support with.

If your child is experiencing any of these difficulties, give us a call on 8272 2862 as we may be able to help.

Lisa Mathers, Speech Pathologist

Common speech sound processes

Your child should be assessed by a Speech Pathologist if they do any of the following (this list is a quick summary of three of the most common speech sound substitutions, however there are many more):

• After turning 3 years old, leaves off final sounds in words (‘bu’ for ‘bus’, ‘ca’ for ‘cat’)
• After turning 3 years of age, replaces long hissing sounds such as ‘s’ and ‘f’ with short stopped sounds such as ‘d’ (‘dun’ for ‘sun’) and ‘b’ (‘bish’ for ‘fish’)
• After 3.5 years of age, says a ‘k’ or ‘g’ sound as a ‘t’ or ‘d’ sound (‘ta’ for ‘car’ or ‘do’ for ‘go’)

There are many more speech sound substitutions so if your child is making any errors, call our Speech Pathologists to see if they are age appropriate.

Use of sounds

• At 2 years of age, children usually use most vowel sounds and a variety of consonants (p, b, t, d, k, g, m, n, w).
• By 5 years of age, children are usually able to use most speech sounds but may still have difficulties with ‘s’, ‘r’, ‘l’ and ‘th’.

Your child’s speech should become more intelligible (understood by an unfamiliar listener) as they get older.  By 18 months, a child’s speech is usually 25% intelligible, by 2 years to 3 years of age a child is usually 50-75% intelligible and, by 3 years to 4 years of age, a child’s speech is usually 75-90% intelligible.  By 4-5 years of age, a child’s speech is usually 90-100% intelligible.

If you have any concerns about your child’s speech sounds or intelligibility, please call our Speech Pathologists for a chat and to see if an appointment is needed.

– Lisa Mathers, Speech Pathologist at Sure Start Health