Typical Child Development 2

Typical Child Development: Speech Development

• Mid-Semester Focus: Typical child development, focusing on speech development.

• Interactive activities to refine knowledge.

• Wednesday: Patrick will focus on mid-semester revision.

Kahoot Review: Key Takeaways

• The inner ear and middle ear develop separately in utero, impacting potential pathologies.

• Cochlear function is present around week 24 of gestation.

• Preverbal communication relies on gaze patterns and eye contact.

• Nine-month-olds should be able to sit without support for VRA testing.

• Eleven-month-olds exhibit gestures, turn-taking, and babbling.

• Two-year-olds are not expected to tell detailed stories.

• Receptive language relates to understanding, while expressive language involves production.

• Language is not solely spoken; it includes visual and written forms.

Learning Outcomes

• Focus on speech development, scenarios where speech and language might vary, and how communication elements fit together in typically developing children.

Speech Development Pyramid

• Speech production sits at the top of the communication pyramid.

Speech Sound Development

• Focuses on the sounds relevant to a language, typical errors, and intelligibility.

• Intelligibility: How well a child is understood by strangers.

Key Terms

• Phonetic Development: Acquisition or mastery of speech sounds.

  • Example: $m$ sound is commonly acquired early.

  • Mastery: Correct use and order of sounds in a word (beginning, middle, end).

• Phonemic/Phonological Development: Organization of speech sounds within words.

  • Example: In English, the cluster $st$ is common at the beginning of words.

  • Deals with common speech sound errors.

• Speech Intelligibility: Clarity of speech and how well it's understood.

Pre-Verbal Behaviors Recap (0-12 Months)

• Birth: Sounds related to crying and discomfort.

• Three Months: Expansion of sounds, vowel-like sounds, cooing, and gooing ($k$ and $g$).

• Six Months: Consonant-vowel (CV) combinations repeated (e.g., mama, dada).

• Nine Months: Expansion of speech sounds, changing babbling variations (e.g. mabadaga).

• Twelve Months: Babbling continues, words emerge (mama, dada, nana).

Consonant Acquisition Chart

• Highlights different consonants in the English language and when they emerge.

• Early sounds include $p, m, n, w$, and $b$ (by 1.5 years old, mastered by 3 years old).

• $p$ and $b$ are stops (plosives); $m$ is a nasal.

• Glides include $w$ and $l$.

• The mastery of sounds changes with age.

  • $r$: Children start using it around 3, master it by 6-6.5.

Example

• A three-year-old not saying $r$ correctly (e.g., wabbit for rabbit) is typical.

• The fricatives $th$ aren't expected until around 4.5 years of age or later.

• Children produce vowels at a similar pace.

Alternate Perspective

• Two to three years producing and mastering sounds.

• Four years mastering some sounds.

• Five to six years acquiring and mastering trickiest sounds.

Phonemic Development

• Focuses on sound error patterns children produce.

Classifications

• Substitution Processes: Replacing one sound class with another.

• Syllable Structure Processes: Reducing sounds or syllables in words.

• Assimilation Processes: Sound changes influenced by surrounding sounds.

Common Substitution Processes: Examples and Age Ranges

• Fronting: Sounds produced at the back of the oral cavity are substituted with sounds produced at the front.

  • Example: Tutti for cookie, $t$ for $k$.

  • Should be suppressed by around 3-4.

• Stopping: Stopping the flow of a fricative sound. itemize

  • Example: Wheat for wish, $t$ for $sh$.

• Gliding:

  • Example: Yay yo for yellow, wabbit for rabbit

• Vowelization: Using a vowel in place of a consonant

  • Example: Apple --> appo

Syllable Structure Processes: Examples and Age Ranges

• Final Consonant Deletion: Dropping the last sound.

  • Example: Doh for dog

  • Should disappear around age 3.

• Syllable Reduction: Simplifying multisyllabic sounds.

  • Example: Pewter for computer

  • Should disappear around age 4.

• Cluster Reductions: Simplifying clustered consonants.

  • Example: T for tree

Assimilation Processes: Examples and Age Ranges

• Denasalisation:

  • Example: DOZE for nose.

• Re duplication: Repeating a syllable of a word.
  * Example: Baba for bottle.

• Assimilation: One sound in a word influence the other sounds.

• Cup -> Cug

• Generally these should disappear around age 3.

Uncommon Speech Sound Errors

• Backing: Producing a sound at the back of the mouth instead of the front.

  • Example: Cuck for duck (uncommon pattern).

• Initial Consonant Deletion: Dropping off the beginning of the word.

  • Example: At for cat (less common, potential concern).

Speech Intelligibility

Key Summary Slide

• Summarizes elements of speech development, clarity, and age.

• One to two years: Producing consonants, using words/babbling, not intelligible.

• Three to four years: Mastering consonants, using clusters, speech sound errors, relatively intelligible.

• Four to seven years: Development continues, 90-100% intelligible by age five.

How Intelligible Should a Child Be at a Particular Age?

• Less than 18 months: Not intelligible to a stranger

• Two-three years: Parents should be able to understand close to 100% of the time. itemize

  • Strangers should be able to understand 50-75% of the time.

Speech Examples Analysis

• Video examples to analyze speech elements, intelligibility, etc.

• Includes evaluation the speech of children of various ages, noting the motor and behavioral components of the video.

Communication in Context

• Three elements of communication include:

  • Pre-verbal behavior, language production/understanding, and speech production form fundamental spoken communication.

  • Supplementary Skills: Attention (learning to listen), social interaction and play skills are important

Common Communication Variants

Considerations

• Stuttering/Non-fluency: Encouraging communicative speaking, creating a positive environment for communication

  • Speech language pathologist intervention may be necessary

• Late Talkers: Less than 50 words, no word combinations

  • Speech language pathologist intervention may be necessary

  • A "wait and see" approach may be necessary

• Multilingualism: Confusion in language, delay in one language possible

Motor Milestones

• Gross motor skills: Age-appropriate; the child is getting up and moving.

• Fine motor skills: Able to hold onto a toy and unwrap a present.

Behavioral Milestones

• Turn-taking.

• Reasoning with the parent.

Communication Milestones

• Asking questions.

• Relatively intelligible to someone unfamiliar.

• Using short sentences.

• Articulation is relatively clear.

Expected Age

• Around two and a half years of age.

• No variances in communication (no non-fluency).

• Clearly speaking English (unknown if additional languages are learned).

• Age-appropriate communication skills; not considered a late talker.

Motor Milestones

• Fine motor control: Attempting to place a counter on a wooden pylon.

• Able to hold onto objects.

• Sitting up unsupported and independently.

Behavioral Milestones

• Turn-taking.

• Able to fill in what the caregiver is not.

Communication Milestones

• Following along with a song.

• Not particularly intelligible, but context helps understand.

• Producing early consonants (plosives) and early vowels.

• Demonstrating final consonant deletion (e.g., saying "duh" for "duck").

• Able to say "eieieio", using vowels well in sequence.

Expected Age

• Around 13-14 months old.

• Relatively independent in sitting and playing.

• Engaging in turn-taking and singing.

• Too early to determine if the child is a late talker.

• Unknown if English is the only language.

• Fluency is too early to identify.

• Communication skills are relatively appropriate.

PLUM and HATS Tools

• Designed for Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children, who have a higher incidence of ear disease and hearing challenges.

• These issues can be related to limited access to healthcare, overcrowded housing, and inadequate resources.

• Aims to address potential barriers to early identification of conductive hearing loss, which could be related to cultural factors, healthcare interventions, climate, and nutrition.

• Developed by the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL) in Sydney, in collaboration with Aboriginal Health and Early Childhood Services.

• Checklists to identify listening and talking skills.

• Relevant for the target population and can be applied more broadly.

• Used with parents or caregivers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

• Aims to measure changes in hearing or talking skills over time.

• Generally used for children under six years of age.

PLUM (listening skills)

• Scores in black: Listening skills are on track; reassess in a year.

• Scores in the shaded grey area: Reassess in three months.

• Scores in the white area: Not yet on track; refer to an audiologist.

HATS (talking skills)

• Assesses communication skills.

• Highlights if the child is okay, needs reassessment, or warrants referral to an audiologist or speech pathologist.

• Designed for assessment of children under six years of age.

Parent FAQs

• Two-year-old saying "vanilla" for vanilla: Acceptable, as $v$ sound mastery is not expected at this age; common substitution of $b$ for $v$.

• Five-year-old's intelligibility is only 50%: Concerning, as 100% intelligibility is expected by five years of age, warranting referral to a speech pathologist.

• Late talkers: Defined as not having 50 words or putting two words together by two years of age. Some catch up, but a small proportion may have a language delay.

• Children learning two languages: Simultaneous bilingualism can cause a slight delay in communication development due to acquiring two languages.

Learning Objectives

• Speech development in typically developing children.

• Expected communication, motor and behavioral development milestones.

• Common variations in communication (non-fluency, bilingualism, late talking).

Clinical Practice

• Use knowledge to identify typical development.

• Recognize when milestones are not met and trigger referrals (speech pathologist or pediatrician).

• Assessments vary based on age, cognitive, motor, and communication development.

• Communication strategies vary based on a child's abilities.

• Caregiver questions provide relevant information about language, speech, and communication.

• Apply knowledge to children with and without hearing loss to determine typical communication skills.