One of the many reasons that parents may request that their child is referred for speech therapy is language delay. Delayed language is a condition where speech and language development of young children of preschool age are deemed to be behind where they should be for their age.

A significant caveat relating to language delay is the fact that all children develop at different rates whether that be their physical growth, their reading skills, their cognitive abilities, and, of course, their language skills.

Often a parent will compare their child to others such as children of other family members and friends or at nurseries and preschool groups. The danger with that is that they could be comparing their child to another child whose language skills are very advanced for their age. A simple reason for that might be that they have older siblings who can spend time with that child and as such their interactions help to accelerate their little brother’s or little sister’s language development.

Despite the above, there are language and speech behaviours that genuinely may indicate to parents that their child has a language delay. If any of these apply, then it may a case of speaking to speech therapy experts, such as speech pathologists perth, to seek their advice. Below are seven of the language delay indicators we are referring to.

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