Lots of kids are 'late talkers'. Here's when to take action

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As a speech pathologist, university lecturer and parent of young children, I often get asked a version of the following:

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https://theconversation.com/lots-of-kids-are-late-talkers-heres-when-to-take-action-206609https://theconversation.com/lots-of-kids-are-late-talkers-heres-when-to-take-action-206609
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Friday, June 23, 2023
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Academic achievement, Systematic review, Male, Communication, Speech, Developmental language disorder, Language disorder, Hearing loss, DLD, Spectrum, Parent, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Marie Cassidy, Diagnosis, DSM-IV codes, Research, Risk, History, Language, Disability studies, Mental, Literacy, Intellectual disability, Population, Child, Comprehension, Observation, Achievement Medal, Dyslexia, Mental health, Family, Environment, Otitis, Toy, Nursing, Dentistry, Language industry
Summary
Key Points: 
  • As a speech pathologist, university lecturer and parent of young children, I often get asked a version of the following:
    My child isn’t talking yet.
  • Is that a problem?
  • But by the end of the conversation, I nearly always end up saying “it’s worth looking into”.

Who are late talkers?

    • Late talking is not an official diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders so clinical cut-offs vary.
    • The most common definition is that late talkers do not have 50 words and/or do not use two-word combinations by two years of age.
    • Children are generally assessed for late talking between two and three years via observation by a speech pathologist and parent reports.

Will my late talker grow out of it?

    • Firstly, late talkers may not fully catch up.
    • So, while a late talker may improve, they may face ongoing but perhaps more subtle difficulties at a later age, when language skills are critical to academic success and socialisation.
    • Such behaviours are more common among late talkers, likely because they lack the words to express feelings or wants.
    • This disorder occurs in at least one in five late talkers and can have substantial lifelong impacts on everyday functioning.

What are the risk factors for ongoing language problems?

    • While is no single predictor that allows us to know for sure which children will face ongoing language problems, potential factors include being born male, a family history of language disorders, socioeconomic status, low birth weight and vocabulary size (both speaking and understanding).
    • Disorders of speech and language cluster in families with genetic inheritance a significant factor.
    • Socioeconomic status and how parents interact with their children are risk factors found in research, but they are difficult to separate from the intergenerational impacts of language disorders.

Encouraging early talk


    Speech pathologists now take an active but cautious view: intervene rather than watch and wait. Intervention can be very helpful, consisting of training for parents. Techniques can include:
    • Importantly, a recent systematic review examined the results from 34 different intervention studies and found that 93% of them reported improvements in expressive vocabulary for late talkers.
    • If your child isn’t speaking as much as other children of the same age, it’s worth looking into it.
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