What to do When

You have a Child

with Unclear

Speech

Beverley Jessup

Speech & Language

Therapist

At what ages do children

learn different sounds?

As children are learning to talk, their sound

system develops gradually. This means that

they cannot say all their sounds straight away,

as some are later to develop than others.

Download the free handout to show ages and sounds

Here are 10 tips to help you

to help them

1 Ask the child to tell

you another way or

show you

2

Ask open-ended

questions

e.g.“what did you

do over the

weekend?”

3

Make a home/school

liaison which may take

the form of a diary.

3

This will enable both

parties to jot down any

information of note

which the child is likely

to discuss, for example,

weekend activities.

4

Build up a list of names

of key family members,

pets and friends.

Names are often the

hardest words to

decipher.

5

Repeat back the sentence

to the point where you got

lost; it is less tedious for the

child to repeat back a small

chunk rather than the whole

sentence.

6

Try to avoid making

non-committal noises if

you cannot understand

a child; they are likely to

guess that you have not

understood

7 Repeat what the child

says but give a correct

speech model

8

Communicate with a child

face-to-face; children with

speech difficulties

sometimes compensate by

using more facial expression

or gesture.

9

Visit a Speech & Language

Therapist to assess the sounds that

your child is having difficulty saying

and to get advice and treatment.

http://www.isleofwightspeech

therapy.com/

10

While you wait for your child

to receive speech therapy,

why not learn to do a course

online which will take you

step by step through the

process in helping your child

achieve CLEAR SPEECH.

Beverley trained as a Speech & Language Therapist in 1990 and graduated from De Montfort University, Leicester, United Kingdom. She has experience with adults and children with a variety of speech, language and communication needs. She has trained teaching staff, newly qualified SLTs/SLPs and parents/carers. Visit her website: www.speechtherapycourses4allonline.com Thank you for watching

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