Tag Archives: speech development

Speech Development

Our second foster placement was a toddler. She didn’t talk much when she arrived at 21-months old. I was very concerned for her because I was used to toddlers who were vociferous. After four months living with us and working with ECI, she was much more verbal and had added a lot of words. I was concerned about Jessie’s language development early, but ECI wouldn’t work with her until she was two. She didn’t seem to make a lot of progress between ages two, when the speech therapist started working with her, and age three when she aged out of … Continue reading →

Interview with Creator of Signing Baby.com

Monica Beyer is the creator of the web site Signing Baby.com. She currently lives in St. Joseph Missouri with her three children, Dagan (10), Corbin (7), and Lauren (3). Besides baby sign language her passions are reading, web design, and gardening. I recently interviewed her about baby sign language, her use of it, and her web site www.signingbaby.com. How did you get started using baby sign language? In the year 2000, my second son was around 11 months old. I saw a television program about a baby girl who could use sign language to show her mother that her teeth … Continue reading →

Some Q&A on Baby Sign Language

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We’ve been talking about baby sign language both here and in the Parenting blog. Because I’ve gotten a couple of notes on blog I wrote about baby sign language, I thought we’d start off this morning with a few questions and answers about baby sign language. Does Baby Sign Language cause a delay on when a baby speaks? Studies indicate that teaching your baby sign language helps teach speech at the same time. The point is to not sign in silence, but to use signs in conjunction with spoken words. Let’s put it this way, the sign for thank you … Continue reading →

Causes of Speech and Language Delays

Speech and language delays can be caused by a number of things. This blog will describe the possible causes. Only evaluation by a professional can determine the actual cause of your child’s speech delay. Mental Retardation Children who have some type of mental retardation count for 50% of speech delay cases. According to the American Pediatric Association a child who is mentally retarded “demonstrates global language delay and also has delayed auditory comprehension and delayed use of gestures.” Which means that the child has been continually slower than average in speech development. The child also does not make use of … Continue reading →

Child Speech and Language Development

Many parents wonder is my child’s speech developing normally? Does my child understand everything she should? Review the following general guidelines for speech and language development and find out if your child is on track. 6 months Babbling and using a number of different sounds like ma, da, ba, etc. Responds to his name Responds to human voices by turning his head Responds to the tone of the voice whether friendly or angry 12 months Uses one or more words with meaning (the same word is used to mean the same thing each time), may be a word fragment such … Continue reading →