FAQs

Please refer to the charts below as a general guideline. If you have any questions, please feel free to call our office and speak with one of our therapists.

Gross Development

• 8 months — Object Constancy
• 12 months — First Word
• 12-18 months —Single word period; strings single words together
• 18 months — Two words
• 24 months —Simple sentence components
• 24-36 months — Grammatical inflection; content words
• 36 months — Basic sentence types
• 48 months — Elaborations of basic sentence types

Vocabulary

• 1 ½ — 22 words
• 2 — 272 words
• 2 ½ — 446 words
• 3 — 896 words
• 3 ½ — 1,222 words
• 4 — 1,540 words
• 4 ½ — 1,870 words
• 5 — 2,072 words

This chart should be used as a guideline. These are the average ages in which children should be acquiring and/or mastering the following speech sounds:

• 2 years — m, n, h, p, w, b
• 3 years — k, g, d, t
• 4 years — f, y, l
• 5 years — ch, sh, s, z, j, v
• 6 years — voiced th (that), voiceless th (think)
• 7 years — zh (treasure), initial r (rabbit), vowelized r (for, bird, farm)

• The child is not saying any words at 1 ½ years.
• Speech is largely unintelligible at the age of 3.
• They leave off many beginning consonants after age 3.
• They are not using 2-3 word sentences by the age of 3.
• Sounds are more than 1 year late in appearing on a developmental chart.
• They use mostly vowel sounds.
• They are consistently missing the final consonant sounds.
• The sentence structure is notably faulty.
• The child is bothered by their speech.
• The child is noticeably non-fluent by age 5.
• The voice is monotone, hypernasal, hyponasal, hoarse or breathy.
• The parents, care givers or teachers are concerned.

• “What?”- the puzzled look
• Appear to be ignoring, when you’re talking to them. (Auditory Shut-down)
• Closely watching your face when you are talking.
• Inability to follow directions they should be able to follow.

Auditory Overload

• Shut down auditorially- actually don’t hear you
• When visually or tactually involved don’t hear

Auditory Over stimulation

• They become hyperactive when in the presence of too much noise.
• May run in circles, self-sim, yell, talk too much, become physical, can’t seem to calm down. -they need a quiet place to calm down.

Sound Sensitivity

• Cover ears, may cry, may seek quiet corners, may become physical and hit someone who is crying. (Fire alarms can set them off for the whole day.)

Auditory Distractability

• Head turns at every second

Auditory Figure-Ground

• All sounds come in the same level of loudness. Inability to block out background noise, (i.e. heat register or outside mowing interfere with listening. -movie theatre)

Please visit our Berard Auditory Integration Training (AIT) page for more information

• The child covers their ears, grimaces, cries or becomes irritable in the presence of loud sounds or “particular” sounds.
• The child seems to hear sounds that others do not.
• The child seems unaware of sounds even though there is no hearing loss.
• The child becomes hyperactive, agitated, or aggressive in a noisy environment. There is a notable deterioration of behavior in a noisy versus quiet environment.
• The child becomes withdrawn in a noisy environment.
• The child watches others before following directions.
• The child does not respond when their name is called.
• The child stares at you after a direction has been given.
• The presence of certain sounds appears to disorient the child and/or contribute to a loss of balance.
• The child seems to be calm and “listen well” in one-on-one situations, but not in a group.
• The child has trouble localizing sound.
• The child has difficulty discriminating speech sounds.
• The one child in class who is most likely to say, “What?” or “I didn’t hear you.”
• The child seems to “tune out” auditory information when visually or motorically engaged.
• The child is physically exhausted at the end of the day.
• The child has atypical speech and language development.
• The child talks constantly but does not answer questions or engage in conversations. They constantly do a “monologue.”
• The child has difficulty making friends and has a tendency to play alone.

Please visit our Berard Auditory Integration Training (AIT) page for more information

Yes. All of our speech language pathologists are available to consult with other professionals that may be providing additional therapy or educational programming. In addition, we are more than happy to accompany you to school meetings and IEPs to support you and your child during the educational process.

Yes. A certified speech language pathologist will visit the preschool to conduct a speech and language screening which assesses expressive/receptive language, articulation, fluency and voice. The screening will also entail a hearing screening to identify a possible hearing loss that could interfere with the child’s communication skills and future school performance.

These are just screenings and should not be viewed as a complete evaluation. If a child does not pass a section, it may indicate the need for further evaluation of that particular area by a speech language pathologist or audiologist.