Seeking a speech and language assessment for a child can be a frightening decision for parents to make. It will be hard for them to determine whether or not it's the appropriate time to schedule an appointment with a professional. However, having an assessment completed by an expert can put your mind at ease and give you a chance to get all the answers you seek.

In terms of development, the truth is every child is different. However, as a general rule, refer your child to a specialist if the following applies:

At 18 months: If they do not babble or attempt to make you hear their words, and do not make eye contact.

At 2 years old: If they use no or very few words (< 10), don’t seem to understanding you, don’t pretend play, and utter very few clear sounds.

At 2.5 years: If they cannot follow simple instructions (e.g: Put the toy on the bed), if they are unable to link two words together (e.g: yes mum, more milk…), or if the mother and/or close family still do not understand what the child is saying.

At 3 years old: If they are unable to follow simple instructions that contain words they’ve heard before,  they cannot hold a simple two-way conversation, they are only using single (not multiple) words, or if they still sound inintelligible or are omitting/substituting speech sounds.

At 3.5 to 4 years old: If they cannot follow instructions that include more complex directives, such as size, color, prepositions etc, if they repeat what is said to them, they have an unusual sentence structures, and don’t say four or more words in a row, or if they continue to omit speech sounds and are not easily understood by people close to them.

Beyond 4 years of age: If they exhibit persistent stammering / dysfluent talking.

Sometimes, a delay in language and speech development might be benign and nothing to worry about. However, it’s important to seek expert advice to determine whether your child may have an underlying speech disorder that calls for early intervention.