Red flags in speech development: when to worry

Stephanie Marz from Bend Speech Express shares an important article with the True North Readers.

by Robin Hansen

Urban legend claims speech delay is not serious. The legend also says,"boys talk later" and "most all" kids will "catch up" naturally. The fact is MOST kids don't just catch up naturally. Never let these urban legends stop you from seeking help. What if you allowed denial to keep your child from the gift of early intervention? What is it turned out to be nothing? What is the worst that can happen? You have a child that speaks well and you can stop speech therapy! There is no loser in seeking help early. Denial, and delay can lead to a tremendous amount of personal guilt as windows of opportunity may never be regained.


Many people still believe children who are speech delayed because of poor parenting skills. This is not the case, unless the parents has been very negligent or abusive. Thanks to the latest research as demonstrated in the documentary, , MRI's now show that at 6 months, they can predict which babies will have speech issues. If your baby shows any delays, do not hesitate to contact your pediatrician. Ask your pediatrician for a referral to a speech and language therapist or a developmental pediatrician for an evaluation as soon as possible. If you child is under age 3, you can call your local regional center for a free appointment to have them evaluate your baby. Regional centers will evaluate and offer intervention services at no cost. If your child is age 3 or over, call your local school district to ask for an evaluation. If the school district finds your pre-schooler eligible, they will offer speech therapy and possibly other services, if needed.

Keep in mind that the wait time for evaluations and eligibility process can take 2-4 months. A "wait and see" approach can waste valuableintervention time. The criteria for eligibility for children age 3 and up, may be far more stringent because they are covered by a different set of state standards than the 0-3 group does. One year of speech therapy at age 2 can negate the need for years of speech therapy at a later age.

If your child does have a speech delay, keep in mind that there is a very high possibility your child may be diagnosed with a learning/attention or reading disability later on. At age 5 or 6, ask the local school district for an educational evaluation to measure phonemic awareness, auditory and perceptual skills plus processing disorders. If there is an inability to acquire oral language naturally, it follows that aquiring written language acquisition will be difficult too.

Newborn to 3 months:

• Startles to loud sounds

• Quiets or smiles when spoken to

• Seems to recognize your voice

• Increases or decreases sucking behavior in response to sound

• Makes pleasure sounds (cooing)

• Cries differently for different needs

• Smiles when he sees you

Red flags: No sounds (cooing)/quiet baby; doesn’t react to you 4 to 6 months

4 to 6 months

• Moves eyes in direction of sound

• Responds to changes in your voice • Notices toys that make sounds

• Pays attention to music

• Babbling sounds (more speech-like); many different sounds including "p, b, m"

• Vocalizes excitement and displeasure

• Makes gurgling sounds when left alone and when playing with

Red flags: Quiet baby—no sounds; no eye contact with you; no attention to voice or music

7 months to 12 months

• Enjoys games and peek-a-boo

• Turns and looks in direction of sounds

• Listens when spoken to

• Recognizes words for common items like "cup", "shoe", "juice"

• Begins to respond to requests ("Come here," "Want more?") • Babbling has both long and short groups of sounds such as "tata upup bibibi"

• Uses speech or non-crying sounds to get and keep attention

• Imitates different speech sounds

• Has 1 or 2 words (bye bye, dada, mama) although they may not be clear

• Uses communicative gestures such as pointing and pulling

Red flags: Quiet baby—few vocalizations; no sound play or babbling, pointing or gesturing by 12 months; only vowels in vocalizations; does not respond to voice or sounds.

12 months to 15 months

• Maintains attention to pictures

• Understands simple directions especially with vocal or physical cues

• Uses one or more words with meaning

Red flags: No communicative gestures such as pointing or pulling; vocalizations with only vowels; no imitative skills; no response to parent’s vocalizations; no response to name.

15 months to 18 months

• Says more words each month; vocabulary of 5-20 words

• Vocabulary composed mainly of nouns

• Much jargon-like speech

•Able to follow simple commands without cues ("Get your bear.")

Red flags: No single words by 16 months; no imitative skills; limited consonants in speech; no response to directions with cues.

18-21 months

• Points to a few body parts when named

• Follows simple commands and understands simple questions ("Roll the ball," "Where’s your shoe?")

• Listens to simple stories, songs, and rhymes

• Points to pictures in a book when named

• Uses many different consonant sounds at beginning of words

• Expressive vocabulary of 25-50 words

Red flags: Limited variety of consonants; vowel distortions; few words, limited imitative skills.

21 months to 24 months

• Uses some 1-2 word questions ("What’s that?" "Daddy?" "Bye bye?")

• Puts 2 words together ("more cookie", "no juice", "Mommy book")

• Language explosion around 18-24 months; vocabulary of 150-300 words by 24 months

Red flags: Limited spoken vocabulary; limited variety of consonants; distortions of vowels or sounds; little response to name, directions, questions.

24 months to 36 months

• Understands differences in meanings of words (in/out, go/stop, up/down)

• Follows two requests ("Get the book and put it on the table")

• Has a word for almost everything

• Uses 2-3 words to talk about and ask for things

• Speech is understood by familiar listeners most of the time

• Often asks for or directs attention to objects by naming them

Red flags: No language explosion by 30 months; unintelligible speech; small vocabulary; no simple 2-word combinations by 27 months.

36 months

• Hears you when you call from another room

• Answers simple "who?," "what?," "where?," "why?" questions

• Talks about activities at school or friend’s home

• People outside family usually understand child’s speech

• Uses a lot of sentences that have 4 or more words

Red flags: Unintelligible speech; limited vocabulary; short utterances (only 1-2 words); limited consonants; little response to questions or directions.

Review of Red Flags for Developing Speech and Language:

• Little sound play or babbling as infant

• No babbling, pointing, or gesturing by 12 months

• No single words by 16 months

• No spontaneous 2 word phrases by 27 months

• Missed "language explosion" by 30 months

• Any regression in speech, language, or social skills at any age

• No eye contact or response to sounds

• No response to name by 15 months

• No response to directions or questions by 24 months

• Limited number of consonant sounds or vowel distortions by 24 months; low intelligibility for toddler (24-36 months)

• Poor verbal imitation skills by 12 months

• Small vocabulary for age; not much variety

Risk Factors:

• Family history of speech and language disorder

• Medical history of chronic otitis media with effusion

• Motor disorders/muscle weakness

• Limited or poor parental interactions

For more info: http://www.childrensmemorial.org/documents/SpeechLangDevellMilest.pdf



How Does Your Child Hear and Talk? American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, http://www.asha.org/ .

Agin, Marilyn C, M.D., " The Late Talker-When Silence Isn’t Golden", November 1, 2004, http://www.contemporypediatrics.com/ .

Language Development in Children, http://www.childdevelopmentinstitute.org/ .

Resources: Beyond Baby Talk, by Apel and Masterson, 2001.

NW Community Balloons Over Bend Children’s Festival benefiting Saving Grace

For over 22 years Saving Grace has celebrated healthy families and healthy communities with our Saving Grace’s Children’s Festival. This year, Saving Grace has joined in partnership with Balloons Over Bend to create an exciting new family festival that will continue to benefit Saving Grace and our work throughout Central Oregon. Join us on Saturday July 23rd at Riverbend Park from 10am to 6pm.


This festival promotes a healthy, fun lifestyle for children. Nearly 40 different local organizations and businesses are hosting a variety of games and crafts for kids of all ages. Everything from face painting to science experiments with exploding balloons. There will also be a premier bounce house area and food and craft vendors. A variety of entertainers will take over the stage at Riverbend Park all day long.

This is a great way to enjoy a fun filled day as a family. The festival is free, but tickets must be purchased to participate in the booth activities and the bounce area. In addition to individual tickets, a family pack will be available. For every family pack purchased you will be entered into a children’s bike giveaway drawing.

The proceeds from the festival will go to help provide 100% free services to those in need of help within our community. Saving Grace provides a place free from fear in our emergency shelter, a 24-hour hotline, emergency transportation, safety planning, support groups, children's advocacy, community education and more.

For more information, or if you are interested in volunteering at the Children’s Festival please contact lauren@saving-grace.org. Saving Grace provides comprehensive family violence and sexual assault services and promotes the value of living life free from violence.

Annual Pet Parade a Holiday Favorite

Enjoy this slideshow of some highlights from the annual Fourth of July Pet Parade. You can click on an image to see the entire gallery on staff photographer, Kimberly Teichrow's website!

Kokanee Cafe is open for lunch as of June 1!

The Kokanee Café is a rustic restaurant nestled amongst the ponderosa pines in the enchanting forest surrounding the Metolius River. They have been serving fine Northwest Cuisine for over two decades, and  now offer a full bar to compliment their menu and eclectic wine list.

Returning for his sixth year at the Kokanee Café, award-winning chef Roscoe Roberson has artfully created a menu that stays true to the Northwest Tradition of quality locally-grown and raised meats, fish and produce with a unique, artistic flair.

Whether you are celebrating one of life’s special occasions, or just looking for a spot to enjoy an exceptional meal while taking in the beauty of the Metolius River Basin, the Kokanee Café is the perfect spot!

Adventures in Parenting - on Vacation. By Kimberly Teichrow

Sometimes you get lucky in Vegas. Sometimes, not so much. I suppose it’s all about the odds.

We have been vacationing in Vegas for 6 years now – and yes, we take the kids. Neither my husband nor myself gamble, but we all really enjoy the city. It’s typically our one true vacation, where we lounge by the pool, take in a few fun sights, and enjoy the wonderful food that Vegas has to offer. Most of our other vacations take a certain amount of energy and this one – well, we work really hard at relaxing.

Our boys look forward to Vegas every year – mostly for our traditions. We always get Gelato at the Venetian in honor of my husband’s and my trip to Europe before we had kids (although Max likes to claim he was there – at 9 whole weeks in my belly). We always visit Circus Circus and win way too many (but way much-loved) stuffed animals. We love buffets, and full days at the pool at our timeshare, M&M World, and one big show each year. I’m sure you can understand the draw, and how much the boys anticipate the trip.

 Needless to say, my oldest son was completely distraught when, upon landing at McCarran Airport in Vegas, he proceeded to get completely sick in the men’s bathroom. I wish there was some way of tracking down the poor soul who had to clean it up. The rest of the evening was, and I’ve given him permission to say it without reservation since it truly was, hell. Poor kiddo – up all night. Clearly not food poisoning, I crossed my fingers that the bug would stop with him. He was a trooper and managed a dip in the pool the following evening, but we were down one day of relaxation and fun.

We rallied the troops once Max felt better and knocked off a few of our traditions, including a full day at the pool, and even a trip to the Hoover Dam, where once we were down in the “belly” of the Dam, the elevators malfunctioned and we “evacuated” out through areas where the public rarely visits. Which was, in a word, cool!

By Tuesday evening, we were feeling great and looking forward to the rest of the week when, alas, poor Dave was bug-struck. Poor hubby. Up all night. One more day out of commission. Dave was a trooper, though, and joined us for a bit at the pool the following day.

A day later, just when we were all ready to press forward and visit the much-anticipated (well, by the Mom-tographer at least) Valley of Fire State Park, followed by our big show, the Jabbowockeez the next day. I get bug-struck. Poor me. Up all night.

Really? Three of us? On our favorite (and not exactly cheap) vacation? I guess the odds were not in our favor this time.

The boys took it all in relative stride – and while we did have to take it a bit slower than normal, we did manage to have a whole lot of fun. Maybe not as many gut-busting meals, but is that such a bad thing? We managed to cover a good portion of our traditions – we ARE hauling back to Bend a fresh crop of well-loved Circus-Circus stowaways. I did manage to get myself out of bed, slowly, and make it to the Jabbowockeez show at the Monte Carlo – which was, by the way, amazing.

 

I’m considering this vacation an offering to the Gods (we’re Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series fans) – and will hope that the next few years of vacations will be full of health & wellness!

I mean really, the odds are in our favor, right?

Kimberly Teichrow, staff photographer for True North Parenting, lives in Bend, Oregon with her family. They love to take adventures, and Kimberly loves to capture them through her lens. You can see more photos, and read more about their travel adventures at Wildfire - Kimberly's new travel & photo blog.

Peter & the Wolf Ballet at the Tower Theater Friday June 17th!

Characters from Sergei Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" will be represented by an orchestra instrument and danced by students from the Academie de Ballet Classique.


You will be delighted by this musical story by Sergei Prokofiev and adapted to dance. Each character is represented by an orchestra instrument and danced by Students of Valerie Holgers’ Academie de Ballet Classique. The dancers present the story of a young boy, his animal friends; Duck, Bird and Cat, a worried grandfather and a menacing wolf. Set in Russia, the story comes alive with dance and the rich musical composition of Sergei Prokofiev.

Tickets: Reserved Seating $11.50, Children 5 and under are FREE with a paid Adult, Day of Show $13.50

KITS FOR KIDS HOLDS PIZZA NIGHT FUNDRAISER FOR HOMELESS CHILDREN JUNE 21, 2011

Kits For Kids will hold a fundraiser June 21 5-8pm at Abby’s Pizza on NE 3rd St in Bend. Abby’s Pizza will donate 20% of the night’s proceeds to help purchase hygiene products for some-900 homeless children in the Bend LaPine, Sisters and Redmond school districts.


The Kits For Kids group annually sews bags, fills them with everyday hygiene items and donates them to the Family Access Network (F.A.N.) who distributes them through local schools.

For more information about needed supplies or how to help contact project chairwoman Helen Smith at 541 382-8502 or hsmith@bendcable.com