© Aawaj Speech and Hearing Center 2024
Speech and language therapists focus on developing a child’s overall communication skills. They will establish an individualized program, based on your child’s needs, to maximize their skills in the following areas: pre-verbal communication, receptive language, expressive language, cognitive language, social language and/ or articulation.
There is an almost universal order for the acquisition of language. Initially, the infant expresses its needs and desires through crying. As the brain matures, the communication skills develop gradually from the primitive reflexive crying to differential crying and later to vocalizations, pointing, gestures and speech. Thus, the child moves from the crying stage to the production of first true and meaningful word at the age of one. By the age of two, the child learns to combine the words to make simple sentences. Vocabulary size also increases with age. Gradually the major grammatical structures in the native language begin to develop in a more systematic way as the child’s utterances extend beyond the two-word stage.
The infant’s first few years of life after birth i.e. the first three years of life are crucial for the development of speech and language. During this period, there is a rapid development in the brain structurally and functionally, which is reflected in the cognitive and linguistic development. Once the crucial part of the critical period is exceeded without stimulation from the environment, learning language becomes difficult and effortful.
Across the globe many children are identified at risk of speech and language problems. Early identification and intervention for these children is very important as research indicates that if the language disorder is identified after the crucial period of language acquisition, it may lead to long term effects like reading and other academic difficulties and psychological problems. In spite of these problems, very few certified speech therapist are available in Nepal. Due to which, early identification and speech stimulation gets delayed. If the child is not following the normal speech and language milestones, the parent should consult the Pediatrician, ENT doctor, or the Speech therapist.
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If you think you are not hearing well in the future, contact our clinic for hearing screening and for any hearing related queries.
© Aawaj Speech and Hearing Center 2024