By Magic Words Speech and Language Therapist, by Catherine Clancy
If you have concerns about your child’s speech, language and communication skills, one of the first questions to ask is: what is my child’s hearing like?
It has been well documented over many years that hearing is fundamental for speech and language development. If a child cannot clearly hear the sounds in the word being said, how can we expect a child to identify these sounds, discriminate these from other sounds and produce them? How can we then expect a child to develop his or her vocabulary?
A new-born hearing screening is offered to all babies in England which helps to identify babies with permanent hearing loss as soon as possible. Your child’s hearing may then be tested as part of a review for his or her health and development from 9 months – 2.5 years. Most children will then have a hearing test when they start school, at around 4 or 5 years old.
We are very fortunate in the UK with our NHS to have free screenings like these in place that support early identification of hearing difficulties. However, if you have concerns about your child’s speech, language and communication skills you should ask the question: what is my child’s hearing like? If you also have concerns about your child’s ability to hear, then their hearing can be checked at any other time by speaking to your GP or health visitor who will support a referral to audiology. It is important that your child’s hearing has been assessed in the last year if they are presenting with delayed speech and language skills.
A therapist like myself will assess your child’s needs online and discuss the support moving forwards. https://www.magicwordstherapy.co.uk/our-team
