So often, parents come into our clinic, concerned that that their children haven’t started talking. Sometimes, their child’s peers have already started speaking, for other parents, their older children were speaking by this age, and they’re worried that their younger child isn’t meeting the same milestones as their older sibling.

As I’m sure we’ve all heard before, its important to remember that every child is unique and that no two children will follow the exact same pattern of development. As Speech and Language Therapists, there are broad ranges in which we expect development to occur for speech, language, and social communication. However, before we even consider addressing a child’s ability to talk, we must ensure that the foundations of communication are solid and secure. Children need to master a range of ‘pre-language’ skills before they are able to learn language. These can include:

• Attention and listening – We learn any skill by watching and listening to others. For example, if you were learning to play a new instrument, you would have to watch and listen to your teacher to learn all of the skills needed to play that instrument.

  Similarly, if children are to learn new words and what those words mean, they need to hold and focus their attention on you to listen and begin to understand the meanings of the words you use. Children need to have mastered ‘single channelled attention’ before they are able to listen and learn during play. 

• Play skills – The ability to co-operatively play with others is another essential tool to being a good communicator. To communicate with another person verbally or through signing, we must be able to take turns and mutually engage in an interaction. Play with another person follows similar principles, so, to teach children these principles, we use play as an approach to introduce co-operative interactions.