What You Must Know About Speech Problems

Find out if your toddler’s language development is on track, what to do about stuttering and when to seek help about speech disorders.

When Marianne (not her real name) heard her four-year-old daughter pronounce her playschool friend Rory’s name as “Wowy”, she got worried.

“Over time, I noticed that it wasn’t just his name that she couldn’t say properly; she was substituting ‘w’s for ‘r’s almost all the time.

“Her friends her age didn’t seem to have trouble pronouncing their ‘r’s and I seriously began to wonder if she had a speech impediment. The fact that she couldn’t say her friend’s name correctly was, I thought, abnormal, and frankly, a little scary.”

It’s not uncommon for young children like Marianne’s daughter to have difficulty pronouncing or articulating certain words. Many children between the ages of 18 months and five years also find it hard to express their thoughts verbally, sing along to nursery rhymes or understand the difference between good and broken English.

Indeed, learning how to talk is a journey – one that’s filled with as much frustration as it is joy.

Fortunately, most speech and language development problems can be remedied, according to experts Young Parents talked to. Here are the best ways to address 10 of the most common ones.

How do I know if my toddler’s language development is on track?

There are certain language milestones toddlers ought to have reached by the time they get to specific ages, explains Lisa Lim, clinical director and speech language pathologist at The Speech Practice.

By the age of 18 months, for example, they should be able to say 10 to 15 meaningful words, imitate words that they hear, identify body parts, and play by pretending to feed their dolls or toy animals.