The other day I was treated to a short presentation on latest findings about children's speech and language development and how hearing problems are related to that. It was really great to get some background information on how speech and language develops in children. First thing to note was that speech and language development are not the same. Speech development is concerned with producing the sounds that make up words (i.e. the vowels and consonants). Language development is about words and sentences (i.e. the ability to communicate using language).

The presentation was based on a new document put together by the Ministry of Health called "Much more than words" (download "Much more than words" here). It described how speech and language develops and includes many useful bits of information for parents as well as many examples, exercises and symptoms of potential problems to look out for.

One of the many great pieces of information I found in there was this speech sound development chart:

(Speech Sound Development Chart: Ministry of Health - "Much More Than Words")

As always timeframes are indicative only and are based on averages but I found it very interesting as background information on the sequence of how sounds are formed. Another thing I didn't know was that many children are able to produce sounds at the end of a word but not at the beginning. E.g. they can say "book" but not "car" and end up saying "tar" instead. "F" and "K" sounds are recognised for being difficult to pronounce at the beginning of words. So if your child is experiencing that you may help them by saying lots of words that end with F or K and then move to words where F and K are in the middle etc.

Fascinating stuff I thought! There's lots more in the whole document especially around potential hearing problems and when to seek advice. In many cases there is no reason for concern and certain symptoms or behaviours are just a signal that children have reached a particular stage in their language development (e.g. stuttering which is experienced temporarily by many children). Whether you are simply interested or concerned about hearing, speech and language development the document is a great resource - check it out.

-Stefan

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