by Fransica Febryana Sidjaja, M. Psi
Having a child that could express their thoughts in a clear sentences surely brings a great joy to parents. Usually my clients’ most popular first word is “mommy”. Other’s first words could be “daddy” or “ncus” (that’s how they call their nanny in baby’s language). I remember my client ones told me how she felt envy to her husband because their child’s first word is “daddy” and not “mommy”.
Producing one word in a sentence is a must in children’s first year. Two words in a sentence is the appropriate standards for two years old, followed by three until four words spoken in a sentence for age three. Four to five words in a sentence should be produced when they are in age four and normally continue to five until six words at age five. These standards of development are the minimum standards that should be fulfilled by the children. There are still many aspects of measurement that will be assessed in order diagnosing the children.
The tolerance for one word to be delayed is 18 months. More than that, if the child still can’t produce 10 single words constantly, parents are suggested to seek professional’s help in order to find out the causes of the delay. Speech delay could be a symptom of developmental disorders such as autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), Down Syndrome, Mental Retardation, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) or Cerebral Palsy. Detailed assessment should be taken to ensure that the delay is caused “just because” the child having what we call “late bloomer” and is not because developmental disorders.
One of the tools to ensure the diagnosis is by taking an intelligence assessment to measure the child’s intelligence capacities. We should be alarmed if the child’s IQ fall in low average range or less. Theoretically, it could be a sign that something wrong in the brain and needs more specific assessment.
In other hand, if the delay is caused “only” because the child is a “late bloomer”, we can be more relaxed (but treatments are still needed to improve their speech ability!) knowing that the problem is less severe than such developmental disorder’s cases. Knowing specifically your child’s cause of delay and treating them effectively will lead you in maximizing their fullness development.