Are your children not using as many words you feel they should have been using at their age? Probably you notice that other kids have problems understanding what your children say. If so, they might have speech and language disorder or either one of the two. Here are more signs of this problem:

• Not babbling at age 4-7 months

Normally, babies experiment with communication through babbling. If they’ve reached their 4th to 7th month and they still don’t babble, this might be the time you might call for the help of a pediatric speech pathologist in Connecticut.

• Lack of gesturing

On average, your child should already be expressing him/herself between 7–12 months through gestures such as waving or pointing.

• Struggling with verbal requests

By their 12th to 24th month, children should then be able to understand simple spoken requests. If they don’t seem to understand your instructions, then they might have speech or language problems.

• Not speaking in sentences

Kids normally can already start putting words to sentences between the ages of 1.5 to 2 years.

• Trouble making particular sounds

From 1 to 3 years old, they might still persistently have trouble pronouncing certain sounds in words like b, p, h, m, t, d, k, g, or f. Generally, they sound unclear and difficult to understand.

If your children have most or all of these issues, then you can always seek professional help from Talk and Play LLC, a provider of speech therapy in New London, Connecticut.