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Identifying Speech Delays in 2-Year-Olds
Every child develops speech and language skills at their own pace. But if you have a nagging feeling your child is lagging on this front, it’s important not to ignore that inkling. Unaddressed speech delays in 2-year-olds can cause compounding social-emotional-academic-communication problems as they get older.
The first step in addressing speech delays in 2-year-olds (or any child) is to identify it. Our Fort Myers speech therapists recommend starting with milestones. Compare your child’s speech-language skills with those that have been identified for the majority of kids in their age range.
A high-quality resource for comparison are the Communication Milestones established by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). These are broken down by age range. For 2-year-olds, we’re going to look at the skillsets identified for kids from 19-24 months and those 2-3 years.
Communication Milestones 19-24 Months
In general, a child who is between the ages of 19 and 24 months should be able to:
- Use and understand a minimum 50+ words. These are mostly things like food, body parts, animals, toys, etc. The speech they use won’t necessarily be clear. For instance, they may say “ba” for “ball” or “du” for “shoe.”
- Put 2+ words together to form more complete ideas. Examples: “Give ball,” “go bye-bye.”
- Follow simple directions with two steps. Something like, “Get the spoon and bring it to me.”
- Correctly use words like “you, mine, and me.”
- Use their words to get help with something.
- Use possessive terms. Example: “My shoe,” “mommy’s cup.”
If your child isn’t reaching these milestones, it may be time to get the ball rolling on intervention services by talking to your child’s pediatrician about your concerns.
Communication Milestones 2-3 Years
A child who is between 2- and 3-years-old should have the ability to:
Fort Myers OT Explains In-Clinic vs. School-Based
If your child has been referred to pediatric occupational therapy services, you may be wondering what’s the point of getting both in-clinic occupational therapy AND school-based occupational therapy. As a Fort Myers OT can explain, these are often similarly-qualified professionals who can help children develop and improve on key life skills. But their focus is slightly different.
Whereas in-clinic occupational therapists can help kids work on any virtually deficit area within our scope of practice, the school-based occupational therapists are going to be aiming to tackle issues that directly impact a student’s access to and success within education.
In-clinic Fort Myers OT services, like those at FOCUS Therapy, are accessible with a doctor’s referral. This is sometimes done in conjunction with a diagnosis like autism, down syndrome, or cerebral palsy. But sometimes it’s merely a global developmental delay.
School-based OT services, on the other hand, are administered with an IEP, or individualized education program, which is guaranteed to students of different needs under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Having a doctor’s referral to OT services isn’t critical in securing school-based services, but it’s certainly weighed in consideration of whether an IEP is appropriate.
A school-based Fort Myers OT is going to aim at assisting with skills like:
- Visual motor and fine motor skills necessary for tasks like typing, writing, and finishing homework.
- Activities of daily living within a school day. These would include things like eating independently at lunchtime, changing into gym clothes, etc.
- Core strengthening necessary to maintain good posture for focusing on and completing school-related activities.
- Executive functioning skills necessary for organization, planning, attention, time management, and coping with changes in a routine.
- Sensory processing skills needed to help a student actively participate throughout a school day.
They’re going to look carefully at enhancing a student’s ability to learn, participate in class, and engage in daily school routines.
Meanwhile, an in-clinic Fort Myers OT at FOCUS Therapy often helps kids work on these same skills, but does so regardless of whether it’s integral to success solely within a school day. We are interested in their success in ALL settings – from the moment they wake to the moment they fall asleep. That can include school-based skills, but also those that have an impact on their daily routines, extracurricular activities, social skills, etc. We address a broader range of conditions and needs.
Clinic-based OTs can also generally start working with kids at a much younger age than those who receive services from a school-based OT. School-based OT services generally aren’t going to start until a child is at least in preschool. In-clinic Fort Myers OT services can sometimes begin in infancy, with a doctor’s referral. This kind of early intervention is critical to helping kids with certain conditions catch up developmentally to their peers. It reduces the skills gap, putting our patients on track to be as successful as possible – not only at school, but in life.
Ultimately, in-school occupational therapy and in-clinic occupational therapy are services that compliment each other. Kids benefit from these supports in both arenas, especially when they start at a young age.
FOCUS offers pediatric speech therapy in Fort Myers and throughout Southwest Florida. Call (239) 313.5049 or Contact Us online.
Additional Resources:
What is Occupational Therapy? American Occupational Therapy Association
More Blog Entries:
Improving Executive Functioning Skills for Kids is Often a Top Therapy Goal, Sept. 30, 2023, FOCUS Therapy Fort Myers OT Blog
FOCUS POCUS Sensory-Friendly Halloween Party is TODAY!!
Celebrate gourd times! FOCUS Therapy’s 4th annual FOCUS POCUS sensory-friendly Halloween Party – complete with costumes, trick-or-treat, games, and fun prizes – is TODAY!
Our therapists are decorating each room of our clinic with a different theme. Join us at our Fort Myers clinic on Royal Gulf Circle from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Patients, siblings, friends, and local community members welcome!
Don’t Miss Our 4th Annual FOCUS POCUS Sensory-Friendly Trick-or-Treat!
Let’s get this party start-led! FOCUS Therapy is hosting its 4th annual FOCUS POCUS event – complete with costumes, trick-or-treat, games, and fun prizes! Our therapists are decorating each room of our clinic with a different theme. Join us for a sensory-friendly trick-or-treat and Halloween party in Fort Myers!
FOCUS POCUS will be 1 week from today, on Thursday, Oct. 26th, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at our clinic on Royal Gulf Circle. Patients, siblings, friends, and local community members welcome!
Improving Executive Functioning Skills for Kids is Often a Top Therapy Goal
As our Fort Myers pediatric therapists can explain, improving executive functioning skills for kids is one of the most common goals listed in our patients’ plans of care. That’s because these skills play a crucial role in a child’s overall development and success in various areas of life, including academics, social interactions, and daily functioning.
What Are Executive Functioning Skills for Kids?
Executive functioning refers to a set of cognitive processes that allow individuals to manage their thoughts, behaviors, and emotions to achieve goals. It’s not a single skill. Rather, it’s a set of skills that together allow a person to:
- Focus, pay attention, and remember
- Plan
- Prioritize
- Work toward goals
- Self-regulate behaviors & emotions
- Adapt to new & unexpected circumstances
- Engage in abstract thinking & planning
Executive functions in childhood are inherently a challenge. They start developing in that very first year of life, but they aren’t fully formed until adulthood. They’re meant to be worked at, and they won’t happen overnight or at the same time for every kid.
That said, successfully mastering age-appropriate executive function is often tougher for kids with conditions like autism, down syndrome, language delays, learning disabilities, etc. You’ll notice when they struggle with things like tantrums, impulse control, staying organized at school, remembering instructions, managing their time, etc.
How Speech, OT, and ABA Therapy Can Help
Executive functioning skills for kids aren’t usually developed in a neat, linear progression. Some skills they’ll pick up faster, others will take longer – with variability often dependent on the child’s unique stresses, family stresses, and educational opportunities.
Early intervention therapies like speech therapy, occupational therapy, and occupational therapy can be game-changers in helping kids who struggle with executive functioning to catch up with other kids their age. The sooner we can start, the more malleable a child’s brain – and the greater success we’ll have.
We provide assessments and individualized plans of care, based on the child’s individual abilities and goals. We help families devise structured routines and schedules – which provides a measure of predictability that helps kids develop skills like time management. Therapists are trained to break down tasks into smaller, more manageable tasks that helps kids learn how to master each one individually and sequentially – ultimately improving organization skills. Visual supports like calendars, checklists, and schedules give kids a way to “see” the task and the time allotment. In turn, this helps them stay calm, organized, and efficient. Play-based interventions can improve memory, social skills, and behavior self-regulation as well – all part of executive functioning skills.
If your child is struggling with executive functioning skills, our pediatric therapists at FOCUS Therapy in Fort Myers can help.
Additional Resources:
Executive function in children: Why it matters and how to help, Dec. 16, 2020, By Johanna Calderon, PhD, Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Medical School
More Blog Entries:
Why Occupational & Speech Therapists in Fort Myers Teach Kids Inferencing, Aug. 31, 2023, Fort Myers Speech Therapy Blog
Concerned About Child Speech Sound Development? See if Your Child’s On Track
Most kids develop the ability to move and speak in a fairly predictable pattern. Although it’s true that child speech sound development can vary, we use “speech sound norms” based on the most common development patterns within a certain peer group to determine whether a child’s speech skills are on track.
(Note, the chart above is specifically for native English speakers. Children who are multi-lingual may develop some of these sounds at different ages than what’s shown here – but it’s still a good idea to consult with a Fort Myers speech therapist for kids if you have any concerns.)
Monitoring child speech sound development is important to ensure they’re reaching age-appropriate milestones. If they are not, early intervention speech therapy may be warranted.
Sometimes parents who note a speech sound or language delay with their kid are tempted to “wait and see” – partly because it can sometimes sound cute but partly to determine whether it actually pans out to be a problem. We don’t recommend this – and not just because this is our area of practice. The reason is that a “wait-and-see” approach can lead to compounding developmental issues, such as reading/literacy difficulty, social struggles, and behavior trouble. The sooner you seek treatment, the faster they can catch up to where they need to be.
The reason early intervention speech therapy for child speech sound development is highly effective is because the younger the child, the more flexible and adaptable their brains are. That makes it easier for them to learn and develop new speech patterns. Getting ahead of speech-language delays in the early stages is usually much easier than trying to chase up/correct patterns that have already become ingrained.
Our Fort Myers speech therapists for kids develop tailored strategies and exercises that meet each child’s specific needs, with the ultimate goal of gradually improving their speech sound development. We also provide parents with tools, tips, and tactics to carry over these lessons at home. These further reinforcements help kids more expeditiously master these key communication skills.
FOCUS offers pediatric speech therapy in Fort Myers and throughout Southwest Florida. Call (239) 313.5049 or Contact Us online.
Additional Resources:
Beyond Baby Talk, The Ultimate Guide to Language Development for Parents, By Kenn Apel, PhD, CCC-SLP, and Julie J. Masterson, PhD, CCC-SLP, Random House
More Blog Entries:
Why Occupational & Speech Therapists in Fort Myers Teach Kids Inferencing, Aug. 31, 2023, Fort Myers Speech Therapist Blog
Fort Myers Occupational Therapy Tips for Maximum Attention & Listening
Is your child always “buzzing” off-the-walls? To maximize attention & listening, try these Fort Myers occupational therapy tips. They can be especially helpful for kids who are neurodivergent, language delayed, or diagnosed with conditions like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
So often when we’re exasperated because our child “won’t listen,” we assume it’s because they’re being willfully defiant. However, as our Fort Myers occupational therapy team can explain, a child might HEAR you, but with conditions like ADHD, there are fundamental barriers to paying attention and language processing.
A child first needs to know that you even want their full attention. As adults, it’s our job to clearly communicate that we want them to really listen and respond to us in this moment. This is why saying their full name, ensuring you’re making eye contact, maybe touching their shoulder, or even getting on their level is helpful. Then you can clearly state that you want them to give you their full attention.
If the issue is language processing (understanding what is being said to them), it can often look like “not listening” or “misbehaving” or “not playing nicely.” That’s not at all their intention – they just aren’t as quickly processing and responding to what’s been communicated with the fast-paced back-and-forth communication flow we’ve come to expect as typical for other kids their age.
If you aren’t sure whether they’re truly understanding what you’ve communicated, start by simply asking them if they did – and have them repeat your message back to you as they understand it. Our Fort Myers occupational therapy professionals often find that just this simple step can be so eye-opening in terms of allowing us to see what a child is actually absorbing from the auditory language input they’re receiving.
We find that for a lot of kids with ADHD and language delays/disorders, visual schedules, stories, or reminders can be incredibly helpful.
Our pediatric occupational therapists can provide FOCUS parents and caregivers with a plethora of tips and strategies – specific to your child – that will help set them up for success and ease your frustrations about them “not listening.”
FOCUS offers pediatric speech, occupational, physical, and ABA therapy in Fort Myers and throughout Southwest Florida. Call (239) 313.5049 or Contact Us online.
Additional Resources:
ADHD and Behavior Problems, By Caroline Miller/Dave Anderson, PhD, Child Mind Institute
More Blog Entries:
Why Occupational & Speech Therapists in Fort Myers Teach Kids Inferencing, Aug. 31, 2023, Fort Myers Occupational Therapist for Kids Blog
Top Fort Myers ABA Therapy Misconceptions
As Fort Myers ABA therapy practitioners, we have been confronted with so many misconceptions about this treatment. We’re passionate about this work because we see the phenomenal difference it makes in the lives of these kids, their families, and their communities – but we’re also enthusiastic when it comes to explaining this value.
Part of the reason ABA therapy tends to be misunderstood is because it’s a relatively new form of therapy (at least when compared to speech therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy). It is an evidence-based therapy, with many strategies tried-and-tested over the course of nearly 100 years. But it wasn’t until the 1970s and 1980s that it truly started to take off – with the rapid rise in childhood autism rates.
Another source of common misconceptions is the fact that in the very early days, practice was sometimes based on a limited understanding of behaviorism – and thus tended to be overly-rigid and even punitive. This didn’t yield the best outcomes – which is why it’s no longer practiced that way. As our Fort Myers ABA therapy team can wholeheartedly attest, it has truly evolved so much since then. We encourage parent/caregiver questions about our therapy approach and philosophy – which is always child-centered, individualized, and leans heavily on positive reinforcement-based strategies.
Lastly, ABA therapy isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. There’s flexibility in how behavior therapy is implemented, depending on the therapist’s training, the specific goals set, and the individual needs/abilities of the child. It’s all evidence-based, but with access to a range of different approaches, we’re assured there’s almost always a verified alternative if a particular strategy isn’t working. That means we can meet the child where they’re at, instead of trying to force round pegs into square holes.
Knowing where some of these ABA therapy misunderstandings arise helps us counter with facts and direct insight from those actually conducting therapy – and feedback from parents & families whose children are receiving it.
FOCUS offers ABA Therapy and ADOS testing in Fort Myers and throughout Southwest Florida. Call (239) 313.5049 or Contact Us online.
Additional Resources:
The Evidence-Based Practice of Applied Behavior Analysis, May 2014, The Behavior Analyst
More Blog Entries:
5 Steps to ABA Therapy in South Florida, May 24, 2022, FOCUS Therapy Fort Myers Blog