Pediatric Resources

Pediatric speech therapist Birmingham

Autism

Autistic children often have unique ways of communicating, interacting, and processing the world around them. We embrace a neurodiversity-affirming approach that honors their strengths while providing support in areas where they seek growth. Early identification and affirming intervention can help create meaningful opportunities for connection and self-expression.

Concierge Speech specializes in providing services to children with many different diagnoses, including the ones listed below:

Phonological Processing Disorder

A specific type of language disorder that affects the ability to process and manipulate the sounds of language. Difficulties in phonological awareness (ex. substituting sounds), phonological memory (remembering sound sequences), reading, and spelling are common.

Articulation Disorder

A speech disorder that involves difficulty producing age-appropriate speech sounds. Characteristics can include substituting, omitting, and/or distorting sounds in isolation, words, sentences, and/or conversation.

Developmental Language Disorder

Children with DLD struggle with understanding and/or using spoken language. Kids with language impairments often have difficulty with comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, and even social skills.

Social Communication Disorder

SCD can affect a child's ability to use language in social settings and navigate interactions with others. Children with SCD may find it challenging to initiate and maintain conversations, follow conversational rules, or interpret social cues. Support from a speech therapist can help them develop strategies to communicate more effectively while honoring their natural way of interacting with the world.

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)

A neurological speech disorder that affects a child's ability to accurately produce speech sounds, syllables, and words. It's characterized by difficulty planning and coordinating the movements of the muscles used in speech (i.e., the lips, tongue, and jaw) to produce clear and intelligible speech.

Fluency Disorder

Also known as stuttering, occurs when the flow of speech is disrupted in some way. Common types of stutters include word or phrase repetitions, prolonging sounds, getting ‘stuck’ when speaking, or producing an increase in fillers (um/uh).

Speech and Languge Norms

  • one year to 18 months

    12 months

    • Initiates social routines

    • Imitates sounds or simple words

    • Appropriately responds to words or phrases

    • Uses one or two words (ex. mama, dada)

    13 - 18 months

    • Looks around when asked ‘where?’ questions

    • Follows simple commands

    • Understands and uses words for common objects

    • Identifies body parts

    • Combines sounds or real words

  • 19 months to 2 years

    Language

    • Has a vocabulary of at least 50 words used to label or request items

    • Puts 2 or more words together (ex. ‘car go’)

    • Follows 2 step directions

    • Uses words to request for help

    • Uses possessives (ex. ‘mommy’s hair’)

    Speech

    • Speech is approximately 50% intelligible to familiar listeners

  • 2 to 3 years

    Language

    • Tries to gain attention

    • Says their name

    • Uses -ing verbs (eating, walking, sleeping, etc.)

    • Uses some plurals (dogs, cats, etc.)

    • Asks why and how

    • Gives a reason for common knowledge things (ex. We need an umbrella because it’s raining).

    Speech

    • Able to produce early speech sounds -p, b, m, h, w, d, n in words.

    • Able to produce most vowels

    • Speech is beginning to sound more clear, however, can frequently be hard to understand to unfamiliar listeners

    • By age 3, speech is approximately 75% intelligible to familiar listeners

  • 3 to 4 years

    Language

    • Compares things using appropriate words (ex. big/bigger)

    • Begins trying to tell you a story from a book or event

    • Understands and uses spatial words (in, on, under, etc.)

    • Pretends to read alone or with others

    • Uses words like ‘a’ and ‘the’ appropriately when talking (ex. a baby, the boy).

    Speech

    • Correctly produces t, k, g, f, y, and -ing in words

    • Can produce all syllables in multisyllabic words

    • Produces the beginning, middle, and end sounds in words

    • By age 4, children should be producing consonant clusters in words (‘sn’ in snail, ‘tw’ in twist, etc.)

    • By age 4, speech is approximately 100% intelligible to familiar listeners

  • 4 to 5 years

    Language

    • Produces grammatically correct, longer sentences.

    • Uses at least one irregular plural form (ex. feet)

    • Includes the main character, place, and uses ‘and’ to connect ideas and retell stories.

    • Understands and uses more complex spatial words (behind, beside, between, etc.).

    • Uses words for temporal concepts (tomorrow, yesterday, etc.)

    • Follows directions and rules to play a game.

    • Blend word parts (ex. ‘lady’ and ‘bug’)

    • Identifies some rhyming words (ex. ‘sock’ and ‘lock’)

    Speech

    • Produces most consonants correctly with the exception of r and ‘th’ sounds.

    • Speech is intelligible to all listeners.

Your child may be a candidate for speech therapy services if he/she is:

  • Is your child having difficulty using words to express their wants and needs? Checkout the speech and language milestones and see if your child may be behind in their development. Speech therapists use a variety of evidenced based approaches to help improve functional communication skills in the home, at school, and in the community.

  • It is common for children to exhibit frustration when they aren't able to successfully get their messages across. This can present as visible frustration or even shut down behaviors. A speech therapist can help reduce this feeling associated with communication by providing the child with a way to express their wants and needs.

  • If you feel as though your child may be behind when compared to other children their age, please give us a call! A speech therapist can complete a comprehensive evaluation to help with detecting any possible deficits in speech and/or language skills and use evidence-based strategies to help your child make improvements. We are dedicated to working with all of the child's caregivers (parents, teachers, etc.) to ensure generalization of their learned skills across all settings (home, school, community).

  • Is your child hard to understand to you and others who meet them? Refer to the speech and language milestones to see what the average intelligibility percentage is at each age. A speech therapist can help determine if a speech sound disorder is present and what treatment approaches would be best for your child!

  • Substituting or deleting sounds in words can have a huge impact on intelligibility. This may be an indication of an articulation or phonological disorder. A speech therapist can help determine if either is present and develop an effective treatment plan specific to each individual child.

  • If your child finds it challenging to initiate and maintain conversations, join peer groups, or interpret social nuances like sarcasm, they may benefit from support in social communication. A speech therapist can help by using evidence-based approaches that honor their unique communication style, build confidence, and provide strategies for meaningful and authentic interactions.

  • Repeating words or phrases in sentences may be indicative of a fluency disorder (stutter). There are many types of stutters that are abnormal if they persist after a certain age. A speech therapist can help determine if a fluency disorder is present and treatment is warranted to improve the child's communication skills.

  • If your child is having difficulty answering WH (what, where, who, when, why) questions and retelling what happens in stories or real-life events, they may have a receptive and/or expressive language disorder. This could impact their performance academically and socially. A speech therapist can help diagnosis a language impairment and develop an appropriate treatment plan based off the child's age and current needs.

Want to learn more about communication milestones and important skills to look for in your child? Click here to access the American Speech and Hearing Association’s (ASHA) website.