What Does a Speech Delay Mean for Your Child? | For Better | US News - 0 views
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I often meet with parents who worry that their children have a speech delay, and who wonder if this means that their child is on the autism spectrum.
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Out of all the delays that a child may experience, delayed speech is the most common, and the delay usually means nothing serious.
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At the same time, 1 in 12 children in the United States does have an actual disorder that affects the ability to speak or swallow, according to the National Institutes of Health, and less than half of those children are getting treatment. The first three years of life are vital for a child's language development, so we pediatricians make every effort to flag any treatable speech delay issues early. That way, we can direct parents toward appropriate sources of help.
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Conditions besides autism also cause speech delays or difficulties. Children learn to speak by hearing speech, so impaired hearing or deafness can affect a child's language development. A hearing test is an important first step in figuring out the root causes of a speech delay.
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You are never wasting your time doing this. The more words your child hears within the first two years, the larger the vocabulary he or she will develop. Solid research shows the great value of parents speaking and reading to very young children.