Clear Speech In Months Instead Of Years

Many parents ask "When should I worry about my child's speech and language development?" Most people say not to worry. Errors are a part of normal development. What should one expect of a child in terms of speech clarity? In truth, there is a broad range of 'normal'. Typically, a child of 3 should be understood by those outside the family, using the context of the conversation for clues. There will be some speech sound errors (wabbit instead of rabbit) but the message is clear enough that the listener can understand the meaning of the words easily. If your child's speech is slurred, if family members have a hard time understanding your child, or the speech patterns do not seem to be 'evolving' into mature speech patterns, it's time for an evaluation.

How long does speech therapy last? It depends. For speech sound correction, therapy can last a few months with the use of new technology called the palatometer. This is a retainer that is worn by the child during a therapy session. The retainer is embedded with sensors that feed input into a computer. While watching a computer screen the child is able to see how their tongue is moving in real time and how that movement compares with correct pronunciation. With the use of the palatometer, speech sound errors that used to take years to correct now takes months.