When to consult privately
DO YOU HAVE A THOUSAND QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR CHILD’S DEVELOPMENT AND HIS LANGUAGE CONCERNS YOU?
This is completely normal! Especially when we listen to our instincts. Parents are able to detect, well before other stakeholders, the little things that make them question. It is therefore good to take a consultation to guide your questions and, in the event that the concerns seem justified, quickly initiate a process.
Everybody wins!
When should you consult with a speech therapist in the private sector?
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When you wonder if there is a problem
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When you know that there is a problem:
– a hypothesis has been put forward
– a diagnosis has been made
– a health professional refers you
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When waiting for services in the public sector
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To complement services obtained in the public sector
We aim to place emphasis on the identification and early intervention of communication disorders. Communication is an essential need and right, and someone with communication difficulties could face enormous obstacles on a daily basis. A communication disorder could prevent the child from being able to follow instructions, understand a story, express his needs, or feelings, and ask for help, for example.
Do not hesitate to ask a speech therapist for an orientation if your child has one or more of the following characteristics :
0 to 18 months
- Does not react to the noise around him
- Does not establish any eye contact
- Does not seek attention with vocalisations
- Does not seek attention with gestures
- Does not produce gestures e.g. waving, clapping hands
- Does not babble
- Does not respond when called by name
1.5 to 2.5 years
- Does not play pretend
- Is unable to follow simple and routine instructions
- Does not understand “give,” “show me,” “take.”
- Is unable to name familiar objects and people
- Uses isolated sounds or words
- Does not yet combine 2 words
- Is not showing interest in language or communicating his needs
2.5 to 3.5 YEARS
- Is unable to execute new instructions
- Does not understand the questions “who?”, “what?”, “where?”
- Does not produce sentences of 3-4 words
- Does not make any requests
- Is unable to name images
- Is understood by relatives less than 50% of the time
- Often drops sounds or parts of words
3.5 to 5 years
- Does not follow the longer instructions
- Does not understand the notions of space “on”, “in”, “below”
- Drop words in his sentences
- Uses few varied words to name objects, people, actions or their experiences
- Only use verbs in the infinitive
- Is not understood by foreigners
5 to 6 years
- Does not understand the questions “when?”, “how?”, “why?”
- Is unable to follow complex instructions in a group
- Is unable to report the events of the day
- Uses short sentences
- Searches for words
- Always replaces several sounds in his words
- Is understood by relatives less than 100% of the time
6 to 7 years
- Tells a story, fact or event in a disorganized manner
- Does not understand stories told to him
- Has difficulty reading and writing
- Does not pronounce the sound “s”, “z”, “ch”, “j”, “r”, “l” correctly
All these names refer to the developmental language disorder (DLD). The term was adopted by consensus in 2017 to help demystify and standardize terminology.
Children who have a developmental language disorder have difficulties in understanding and/or expressing language. DLD is a persistent language disorder affecting nearly 7.5% of the population in Quebec. Difficulties in language skills will persist over time.
The child may experience prolonged difficulties with :
- using longer sentences
- developing and using vocabulary
- sentence structure
- applying grammatical rules
- the ability to tell a story
- the ability to retain information
- processing information
· pronunciation
The assessment consultation
Assessment is required before any speech therapy intervention. It is guided by the information provided in the case history, and takes place through a series of various tests and clinical observations to assess the components of your child’s speech and language. Once completed, it allows the speech therapist to produce a portrait of the strengths and difficulties of your child, and thus, to define the intervention goals and guide you in your daily stimulation.
If you already have a recent written report (less than 12 months old), the assessment is not necessary. However, if the assessment no longer reflects the child’s current profile, it remains to the discretion of the speech therapist to proceed with a reassessment.
Following the assessment, the speech therapist analyzes and interprets the results. A speech-language conclusion or hypothesis will then be made with recommendations.
For more information please contact us, we will be happy to answer your questions.
TO OBTAIN ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, TOOLS, OR RELIABLE RESOURCES ABOUT DLD YOU CAN SEE THE FOLLOWING LINKS :
The DLD and the AQOA :
The DLD explained to healthcare professionals by the OOAQ :
TDL – expliqué au professionnels
DLD explained to parents by the OWAQ :
TDL – expliqué aux parents
Follow the link to calculate the number of people affected by TDL in your community:
RADLD
Quebec Developmental Language Disorder Week – explanations and resources:
Trouble du langage